


Everyone Finds Love

by ani_babe93



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: But if it squicks you out don't worry, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Multi, The heavy shit is implied and not explicit, The whole chapter from a certain point on is filler, everyone loves everyone, poly!DMMD - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2018-04-07 21:29:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 54,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4278588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ani_babe93/pseuds/ani_babe93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After coming to a tentative peace with each other, the boys have found themselves loved and living together in one home. Each one tries to find their own individual ways of coping with their problems, but they all slowly come to terms with the fact that they all need each other.<br/>EDIT: I fixed the formatting for all the chapters, it is MUCH easier to read now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Aoba woke up that morning to a sound he was all too familiar with.

"Hey, Old Man, watch where you're going!" Noiz yelled.

"Shut it, stupid brat! I don't even know why Aoba's keeping you around!" Koujaku retorted, face going red.

"Because he likes that I can LAST more than one round in bed!" the blond spat back with a shit-eating grin.

"Stop fighting, both of you!" Noiz's arm was pulled back mid-swing and Koujaku was roughly jerked back by a surprisingly strong force. "I haven't had my coffee this morning, do you really want to piss me off?" Virus shoved his glasses back up his nose with his free hand and squeezed Noiz's wrist tighter.

"Why should you care whether or not we fight?" Noiz asked the blond behind him. "You could care less about anyone besides Aoba!"

"At least we care about him enough to avoid arguing with any of the others here," Trip pointed out. "Unlike you, whose favorite pass time seems to be aggravating Koujaku to no end. Seriously, what sort of enjoyment do you get out of tormenting the poor man?"

"Probably because it riles him up," Virus sighed. He let Noiz's wrist go, all too aware of the very prominent bruises left on his flesh, and shrugged. "If he wants to argue with Koujaku-san and upset Aoba-san, then let him."

"Hmm." Trip let Koujaku go and walked around him over to the coffee maker before starting on the communal coffee. Off to the side was a second coffee maker, specifically for Virus's coffee, which Trip quickly tended to before dancing over to the cabinets. "Haa...we're out of cereal again."

"Why not drink sugar milk? It's pretty much the same thing," Koujaku suggested halfheartedly. "Oh, wait! Look on the top shelf in the back." Trip stretched up to his toes and glanced around for a second before pulling a bright blue box forward. "I forgot, Aoba asked me to pick some up when I was shopping a week ago."

"Mmm. Thanks, Koujaku." His eyes flicked up to see a bleary-eyed Aoba padding forward in his sleep shirt. "Morning, Sleeping Beauty."

"Good morning, Trip..." He reached up to rub at his eyes and yawned lowly.

"Did you stay up until three in the morning again watching T.V?" Virus asked. When the blue haired male neglected to answer he clicked his teeth. "That's bad for your health, Aoba-san. We don't need you getting sick."

"No, we don't." Koujaku walked over and brushed a light kiss to Aoba's forehead. "Were you just lonely last night?"

"Yeah...I guess..." Aoba yawned again, this one a bit louder, and cracked a still-unfocused eye at his boyfriend. "Nobody came into my room last night..."

"We didn't want to wake you," Mink said from the doorway. His lips ghosted across the top of Aoba's head before he padded farther into the kitchen and over to the fridge. "I almost forgot it was my morning to make breakfast for everyone."

"I've been in here waiting for almost twenty minutes. I was about to give up and just make myself some toast," Noiz grumbled at the older man.

"Noiz-san, be nice. We can't all go to sleep at four and wake up at six bright-eyed and bushy tailed," Virus said. Trip set a coffee mug in front of him, the handle and cup set to look like his beloved Hersha, and squeezed past Mink to where they kept the bowls.

"Oi! Who took my cereal bowl?"

"Sorry, I got hungry last night and couldn't find another one..." Ren looked off to the side anxiously beside Aoba and waited for Trip to get angry at him. Trip just snickered to himself and grabbed another bowl.

"Ah, no big deal. That reminds me, Noiz! Last night was your dish night, what the hell happened?" Noiz froze mid-stride and felt the color drain slightly from his skin.  
"I got distracted," he answered smoothly. "Usagimadoki began malfunctioning, it took me most of the night to figure out what was wrong with him. By the time I did I'd forgotten I was supposed to do dishes."

"Don't let it happen again, yeah?" Trip playfully tapped Noiz on the top of his head and snickered. "See if you can do 'em before we all get home from work today. If they're not done by supper tonight, well...I don't want to see Koujaku raging at needing one of the pans that didn't get washed."

"Yeah, yeah. If it weren't for the fact he'd take it out on everyone here I'd avoid doing the dishes just for that reason," Noiz spat back. Virus frowned and glanced over at Aoba, who had taken up residence in the plushest chair in the kitchen. The rest of the furniture ranged from a rickety barstool to a metal chair meant for the outdoors that barely had any cushioning on it. As a rule whenever Aoba was home he was always given the nicest seat, with the seating arrangements descending in order from oldest to youngest when he wasn't. This meant that Noiz never got to sit in the chair as technically he was, indeed, the youngest. It frustrated him, but he also didn't mind. As long as Aoba was happy, he was happy.

"Aoba-san, Noiz-san seems to be rather hostile this morning. Is something wrong?" he asked. Aoba shrugged and looked over.

"I don't know. He's been that way for a couple of days now. It's starting to get on my nerves," he admitted to the older blond. Only Koujaku and Ren saw the slight flash of pain that crossed Noiz's eyes before he could turn around.

"Hmm." Virus took a sip of his coffee and hummed appreciatively. "Thank you, Trip."

"Welcome." Trip took two cups from the counter and set them on the table quickly. The blue one that faded from a soft ocean blue to a light sky blue came to a rest in front of Aoba, the black one with a red bird soaring over a field of flowers coming to a rest in front of Koujaku's seat.

"Wow, everyone's actually up at a half-decent time today," a soft voice joked from the kitchen door. "Normally I have to go around banging pots together to get everyone out of bed."

"Quiet, Mizuki..." Koujaku groaned, practically drowning himself in his coffee. "Where's Clear?"

"Right here..." The white-haired male poked his head out from around the corner and smiled softly.

"Clear, today is your day to clean up around the house. Please be careful under the stairs, I thought I saw a few nails sticking up from the floor," Koujaku reminded the younger. A bright smile came to Clear's face.

"Of course, Koujaku-san." They'd all wanted both Clear and Virus to drop the honorifics once they were all living together, but since Virus refused to on the grounds of wanting to remain as respectful of Aoba-san's lovers as possible and not wanting to agitate Clear they'd let both of them continue the habit.

"Aoba, what time are we supposed to be at Heibon today?" Ren asked him suddenly. Glancing down at his coil Aoba blinked.

"Umm...twenty minutes ago." He set his coffee down roughly on the table, muttered a quick apology to Clear when some of it sloshed over the edge onto the table, and ran full-tilt towards his bedroom. Ren got up and followed him at a trot. "Ren, call Haga-san and tell him we're a bit late because Granny wanted to see us this morning!"

"Understood." The kitchen burst into soft giggles. Mink turned to Trip and opened his mouth to inquire as to the whereabouts of his coffee when a familiar earthy-brown cup was thrust into his field of vision. He took the clay mug and took a shallow drink from it. "Thank you, Trip."

"Welcome." Trip set another cup down, this one covered in luscious green fields and small white bunnies, and patted the younger blond on the head. "Here. Don't burn yourself on it again." To anyone else it would have seemed like a playful banter, but to those present it was a gentle reminder that the feeling in his mouth had returned full force. "We don't need that mouth of yours out of commission for a week and a half again."

"Trip." The blond pouted and turned to Koujaku.

"I was only teasing him~," he defended. Koujaku shook his head and sighed.

"Still. It bothers him sometimes when you make remarks like that," the hair dresser warned. Mizuki clapped Trip on the back and scooted around to the fridge for the milk. "Mizuki, you could have asked Noiz to get that, he's closer to the fridge than you were."

"It's no big deal," Mizuki assured him. "Ah, shit. We're almost out of milk. Who's day is it to go shopping?"

"Mine," Noiz called out.

"No. It's ours," Virus chimed in. "You have dishes to do, and then you still have to deal with doing maintenance on the AllMates. We took today off, we can handle shopping for things ourselves." Noiz opened his mouth to protest but the look in Virus's eyes cut him off.

"Fine..."

"The list is in your messages Noiz, forward it to Trip." Clear reached around behind Koujaku and began pulling his hair back. "Do you have my kanzashi?"

"Yes, Koujaku-san. I grabbed it from the bathroom this morning," he answered softly, working the ornament gently into blue strands and running his fingers through the tail of it gently. "Your hair is so soft..."

"Thank you. I try my best to take care of it," Koujaku laughed.

"That reminds me, Koujaku, I need to get a trim," Mizuki called from beside Mink.

"I've noticed. Swing by the shop today, I'll get you taken care of." He sipped at his coffee and glanced over to notice Trip picking halfheartedly at his cereal. "Something wrong, Trip?" The slight sheen covering his eyes disappeared and he snapped his head up.

"Hmm? Oh, no. Just...got distracted, I guess." Mizuki and Mink exchanged glances at the stuttered response but neglected to comment. Finally Trip picked up two more glasses and set them in their respective places. The red and black one that had a white ferret circling the mug was left beside Mizuki while the pitch black one sculpted to mimic Welter, tail acting as the handle, was placed on the table in front of Trip's seat. He plopped down into his chair with a huff and stared at his mug.

"You know we have to leave in five minutes, right?" Virus reminded the blond. Trip let out a low sigh of defeat and hung his head.

"I know..." He would barely have time to finish his cereal and the cup of coffee would likely go to waste as it did every morning because it was still too hot for him to drink. He set himself to the task of finishing his cereal just as Mink turned around with two heaping plates of food in his hands.

"Here. Don't everyone go snapping at it at once," he warned, setting the dishes on the table and grabbing his coffee. "Virus, your breakfast is by the stove."

"Thank you, Mink-san." Virus hopped up from his seat and over to where his food sat. He grabbed the biscuit stuffed with two sausage patties coated in cheese with a slayer of scrambled eggs and three or four pieces of bacon and walked towards his room, empty coffee cup discarded in the sink. "Come along, Trip."

"Coming..." Trip swallowed down the last bit of milk before testing his coffee and finding it too hot. He sighed in defeat and followed his counterpart off through the house. Clear looked visibly distraught for a few seconds until Mizuki piped up.

"Hey, isn't my travel cup somewhere up in the cupboard?"

"Yeah, I'm almost positive it is," Noiz answered.

"Clear, pour Trip's coffee in it and make sure he gets it." The robot jumped up and darted over to the cabinet.

"Of course, Mizuki-san!" Koujaku found himself snickering at the reaction. Clear really was too adorable for his own good.

"Yo, Mizuki. You going in to work today?" Noiz asked.

"Yeah, and I'm gonna be swamped. I have three tattoos to finish today, and they're all pretty huge. I probably won't be home until six or seven," he answered the blond. Emeralds flinched slightly. "What about you, Koujaku?"

"Same. I have to dye three people's hair and I'm supposed to style two others for some big event. I won't be home until late tonight." He took a sip of his coffee and looked over at Mink. "What are your plans today?"

"I have a few things to take care of, but they're extremely delicate. I'll likely miss dinner tonight," the burly man answered.

"Once I'm done cleaning the house I'll probably go help Mizuki-san!" Clear stated with a slight smile. Nobody noticed Noiz's eyes widen suddenly.

That meant he was going to be home alone today.

"I could always come help you guys out," he offered quickly.

"Sorry, Noiz, but I don't want to get you tangled up in Scratch's affairs."

"The last time I let you try and cut someone's hair you took half of it with you."

"I'm still not sure I can trust you with a needle yet." Noiz swallowed down a lump of panic beginning to rise in his throat.

"But I can clean up, Koujaku!"

"It's not necessary, Noiz. I don't end up with that much hair on the floor." Since finding himself in a relationship with Aoba he'd been granted his own personal salon, a much more fitting locale than anywhere he could sit for long enough to take care of whatever his clients asked of him.

"Mizuki-"

"I'm sorry, Noiz. I only just now started trusting Clear to help out around Black Needle. It's nothing against you personally, I promise." Noiz finally deflated in defeat. He was going to be left home alone for the first time since agreeing to this train wreck of a polyamorous relationship. He wasn't even entirely sure why he'd agreed to it; he couldn't stand Koujaku, his relationship with Virus and Trip was strained at best, Mizuki barely tolerated him, Clear and he had never really interacted before this, Mink absolutely fucking terrified Noiz, and Ren had a less-than-jolly perception of him. Only Aoba cared enough about him to ask him to stay, that was beginning to hold less and less sway over him every day. He wasn't sure just how much longer the prospect of being with Aoba would be tempting enough to put up with the others before he called it quits and left. No one in the kitchen had even heard the other four leave until Mizuki received a message.

"Ah. Ren and Aoba didn't get in too much trouble with Haga-san being late. Trip and Virus wanted me to ask if there was anything specific any of us wanted," he read aloud.

"I'm running low on conditioner for the salon, you know that kind I use," Koujaku answered.

"Perhaps you could ask him to get some pottery clay? I need to work on a project and I need more," Mink told him. Clear poked his head back in and giggled.

"Tell him something nice for Aoba-san!" A slight smile cracked Mizuki's lips.

"Of course. Noiz, do you need anything?" The youngest blond almost didn't answer before he snapped out of it.

"Hmm? Oh, no. I don't need anything."

"Mmkay. I'm about to head over to the Needle, if any of you need anything, message Trip or Virus." Mizuki set his cup in the sink and walked past Clear and towards his room.

"That's my cue to get ready and leave too," Koujaku announced to no one in particular. His cup clinked against Mizuki's as he set it down. Mink silently placed his mug beside the others and walked off to his bedroom as well. Clear walked off, humming a quiet tune, leaving Noiz alone in the kitchen. He stared intently at his now-frigid coffee, willing someone, anyone to decide to stay around and keep him company for the day, hoping that perhaps he would have saved a coffee nymph or a water nymph from certain death and he would be granted one wish that he would use to never be alone again, ever. But alas, he heard the front door open and close twice, then a third time, meaning the Koujaku had left as well.

Or so he thought; he belatedly registered that Clear had started cleaning last night and had only stopped at Mink's urging, which meant he didn't have much to finish this morning. The head that greeted him was Koujaku's ugly mug.

"Hey, brat. Why don't you kill time by playing your stupid games all day? Since you can't seem to get a job like the rest of us." With a wicked, playful grin he pulled back and left.

That was the last straw; the last string to snap before the doll fell and shattered. Noiz left his cup on the table, realizing that Aoba's also hadn't been moved from its spot, and returned to his bedroom. There he grabbed his suitcase and began gathering his things. His heart clenched a bit when he realized that most everything he owned now was a present from one of the others; his current favorite shirt that had nothing more than a slice of pizza on it was a playful present from Mizuki. The two bunny shorts he owned were courtesy of Mink and Clear, and the gauges he'd taken to wearing instead of his came from Virus and Trip.

He didn't take anything that was given to him by the others, cringing openly at the meager amount of belongings that came to. A few measly change of clothes, his AllMate, the beanie now wrapped snugly around his head, and the suitcase itself. He really hadn't owned anything before now, had he...

But it didn't matter. Everyone only got him gifts and presents because it made Aoba happy, not because they cared about him. Yeah, Trip had warned him about burning his mouth that morning, but he'd quickly tacked on a sexual innuendo that made the affectionate words little more than a precursor to a reminder of all he was good for in that house. Sex.

When he walked out he felt a heaviness settle on his chest. Attributing it to the heat that was beginning to creep up he continued to walk, not really caring where his feet took him. He knew exactly where the others were supposed to be at this time; he knew where to avoid to stay out of sight from them. After all, he was just a stupid brat who spent all of his time playing video games. He wasn't really that important to them, was he?

He found the old Ruff Rabbit hideout abandoned, as he'd hoped. It hadn't shown any signs of inhabitance in at three years, when Noiz had disbanded the team in the wake of Sei's and ultimately Rhyme's death. The old beanbag chairs had been left, ripped open by the rats that infested the living space. He couldn't stay there long; once someone realized he was gone, they would-

Who was he kidding? Once they realized he was gone they would probably all say, "Good riddance," and console Aoba for the two days it would take for him to recover from the hacker's disappearance. Then all would be made right and it would be like Noiz never lived there.

"Good riddance," he whispered to a rat scurrying near his feet. It wouldn't be hard to fix this place back up to where he could live there. All it really needed was for the rats to be gone and the few holes in the walls covered up somehow. Thanks to his meager sewing skills he could repair the chairs laying around and squash them together to make a poor bed until he could find a way to get a real one. He still had his parent's card, after all; it wouldn't be hard to make a few repairs for cheap.

He could just imagine their individual reactions now.

Koujaku would just smile and be thankful that he wouldn't have to look at Noiz's face ever again.

Mink would grumble something about him being a disrespectful asshole and look off to the side.

Clear would probably be really sad that he left until someone played with his hair or reminded him of how beautiful he looked, and then he'd completely forget why he was feeling down.

Virus and Trip would shrug at his disappearance and make some snarky comment that Noiz obviously didn't love Aoba-san as much as the others did.

Ren would squeeze Aoba and whisper soft apologies in the other's ear that he didn't need to whisper.

Mizuki would click his tongue and refuse to add his input to the situation.

Aoba would likely cry and throw a fit, saying that the others needed to look for Noiz until they all swarmed on him with kisses and hugs and reminders that all Noiz ever did was fight with everyone there, and after spending a few days piled up in a bed with the others Noiz would become little more than a distant and slightly irritating memory in all their pasts.

He dropped his belongings on an old desk and cringed as it groaned under the weight. This was his new home now, this was his new life. He'd be able to live for a while on his parent's money, but eventually he would have to give up and either go back to Germany, move back in with Aoba, or get a job himself and try to support himself for the rest of his meager little life. He smiled sadly at the realization and laid down on a mostly-intact green bean bag chair, hat pulled over his eyes and tears soaking the material.


	2. Chapter 2

Funnily enough, Koujaku was the first one to notice Noiz was gone.

"Hey, brat! I brought you lunch!" He set his house keys on the kitchen table and set the box of pizza beside it. "It's pizza from that one place you like!" Silence greeted him, not even broken by the occasional sound effect or grunt from the blond. "Noiz?" It was the first time in a while he'd used the hacker's name, but he figured it would get him a better response than 'brat' would. "Noiz!" A low growl worked itself out of his throat as he strutted to Noiz's usual encampment; the living room, in HIS chair. "Oi, Noiz, don't ignore me, Ao-" He stopped mid-sentence and stride. Noiz was nowhere to be found, and it looked like nothing had been disturbed in the spacious room all morning. "Maybe he's moping in his room..." Deciding to be a little nice he didn't barge in and settled for knocking. "Noiz? Are you in there?" He pressed his ear to the wood and didn't even hear the air conditioning running. He frowned and tried the handle, finding it unlocked and giving easy under his grip. "Noi-" Today seemed to be Noiz's day for cutting Koujaku short, and he wasn't even there. "Shit."

 

Mink glanced down at his Coil suddenly, aggravated at the disruption until he saw who it was. He and Koujaku got along surprisingly well, and Koujaku knew to only message the older man when something was wrong. Obviously this was the case now.

Noiz is missing, he's not at the house and he won't answer his Coil, think you could find him?  
Koujaku

Mink growled for a second before stopping.

I think I know where he is. Let me take care of a few things here and I'll look for him.  
Mink

Half an hour later and the elder male found himself standing with his hip cocked out waiting for Noiz to answer him finally.

"Noiz. I'm not leaving until you answer me," he growled. The hacker pointedly ignored him and continued to play whatever game he'd decided to find to kill time. This continued for nearly half an hour until Mink finally grabbed his arm and pulled him up to his feet.

"Hey, let me go!" Noiz jerked his arm back and glared. "Why the fuck are you even here anyway? Let me guess, did Aoba tell you to find me?"

"No. Red said you were gone, and he asked me to find you." Noiz jerked back a bit. Koujaku asked Mink to find him?

"Pfft. Bullshit. Koujaku doesn't give a damn about me, I'm the last person he would worry about." A deep brown eyebrow arched.

"Really?" He pulled the messages up on his coil and dragged Noiz over to his side. "I think I call bullshit." Noiz blinked slowly and read over the messages. Their conversation continued far past when Mink had agreed to look for him.

 

I'm worried about him, I don't want him to do anything stupid.  
Koujaku

I'm sure Noiz is fine. Don't worry.  
Mink

But it's Noiz. One minute he's cuddled up against me and we're having a decent conversation and then the next he's practically screaming at me to stop touching him. Twenty minutes later he's apologizing to me and wanting me to hug him. I can't ever tell what he's thinking anymore.  
Koujaku

Noiz just needs extra love and attention. We just all need to be patient with him.  
Mink

It's kind of hard to do that when he keeps pushing all of us away.  
Koujaku

Be. Patient. Koujaku.  
Mink

I'm trying. I just wish he would give us a chance. When you find him please PLEASE take him home and don't leave him alone. I'll try and finish up here as fast as I can, maybe I can beat you guys home and wait. I'll warm the pizza I brought for him up. Please be careful, Mink. I don't want anything happening to either of you.  
Koujaku

 

Noiz wiped the tears he didn't know were falling away from his eyes and looked up to Mink, who had a dead expression on his face.  
"Okay...you two care about me, and Aoba does too...oh well." Another message flashed up on Mink's coil.

 

I told the others he was missing.  
Koujaku.

 

A flood of messages began pouring in suddenly.

 

Have you found him?  
Aoba

Has Noiz turned up yet?  
Ren

Do you need help searching for Noiz-san?  
Virus

Did Noiz-san really disappear?  
Clear

Hey, do you need me to take off so I can help look?  
Mizuki

We're finished shopping, want us to look too?  
Trip

 

Noiz heard his own coil go off then.

 

Noiz, where are you?  
Trip

Noiz, we're worried, go home.  
Mizuki

Noiz-san, why did you leave?  
Clear

Noiz-san, please, go back to the house.  
Virus

Noiz, please, come home.  
Aoba

Please be alright Noiz.  
Ren

I'm sorry.  
Koujaku

 

"I haven't heard anything from Mink in nearly three hours." Koujaku sighed and began pacing again. "Noiz hasn't said anything either. I'm worried. I've been worried since I found him gone."

"Mink probably has everything under control." Trip sipped at his tea. "He seems like the kind of person who would only contact someone else if absolutely necessary."

"Koujaku-san, please, calm down. I don't like seeing you worked up like this," Clear begged.

"I can't calm down, I don't know if Noiz and Mink are alright! For all we know those two are in trouble and we're just sitting here twiddling our thumbs and hoping that nothing is wrong!" He ran his fingers through his hair and stopped in his tracks. "Fuck..."

"Good. You're all home." Seven heads turned to see Mink with an either unconscious or sleeping Noiz cradled in his arms bridal style, Noiz's arms locked around Mink's neck, head buried into the crook. "He practically cried himself to sleep while I was carrying him."

"Is he alright?" Mizuki shot up from his chair and over to take Noiz from Mink. Mink shook his head and hoisted Noiz a little higher.

"He's fine, just drained. I think it's best if someone stay with him tonight, either in his room or theirs."

"I'll take him tonight," Mizuki offered. "I probably won't be going to bed anytime soon."

"Right. Clear, bring some of that pizza to Mizuki's room. Once Noiz is settled into bed I'll work on dinner," Mink said, following the tattoo artist back into his room. Gingerly he pried the hacker's arms from around his neck and set him into Mizuki's plush bed. It wasn't the largest (oddly enough it was Mink's, even though most of the boyfriends found their way into Aoba's bed at least twice a week) but it had arguably the softest mattress, unless you shared Virus's and Ren's tastes, and if that were the case then the second bed in Virus's and Trip's room was the best bed in the house. Mink brushed a soft kiss to Noiz's forehead before returning to the kitchen, leaving Mizuki and Noiz alone.

Mizuki sighed and began stripping out of his clothes to take a shower before deciding that waiting would be the best, and so instead grabbed a red and black robe that Noiz had bought him for Christmas and pulled it on. Rather than crawl into bed and risking waking up Noiz he settled for dropping into the chair he kept tucked into the back corner for reading whenever he or Virus got in the mood and grabbed the book he'd left discarded. A second bookmark rest between two of the pages, marking Virus's spot in the same book. Obviously he had better tastes than he thought, if Virus was reading the same books he was.

"Hmm...?" Mizuki's eyes turned up quickly to see Noiz fidgeting in his sleep. "Mmmnnn...who's room am I in?"

"Mine," Mizuki answered. The blond sat up and rubbed his eyes. "How do you feel?"

"Terrible...my eyes hurt like a sonofabitch..." Noiz groaned. He finally registered that he was no longer in Mink's arms and snapped to attention. "Mizuki? Where's Mink?"

"He's in the kitchen making dinner for the others. Clear should be bringing you your food soon." Almost on cue the bedroom door creaked open and Clear poked his head inside.

"Mizuki-san...am I interrupting?" he asked softly.

"No. Come on in, Noiz just woke up." The door opened the rest of the way and in stepped Clear, the box of pizza and a few cans of soda clutched in his arms.

"Here...I brought you two food." Clear darted over to the bed and deposited his load before slipping back outside. Noiz frowned and sat up a little more.

"Clear seems like he's walking on eggshells around me," he muttered.

"We're all a little on edge with you, Noiz. You ran away. You scared all of us today." Mizuki set his book down and walked back over to sit on the edge of his bed. "Why did you leave?"

"...I didn't think anyone here besides Aoba cared about me..." he admitted softly. "All I do is argue with everyone and make them uncomfortable. Koujaku hates my guts right now-"

"Koujaku was the most worried out of us. He thought he was the reason you left, and he said he would have felt terrible if something had happened to you. The only reason he didn't go looking was because he wanted to let the others know." Mizuki tucked a loose blond tuft behind a pierced ear.

"But no one else came to look for me..."

"We trusted Mink when he said he would find you. We knew everything would be okay. We also knew that Mink would have messaged us if he had had trouble finding you. We were just lucky you went...wherever it was that Mink found you."

"The old hideout," he said softly. "I didn't think anyone would bother to look for me, so I went there first."

"Noiz..."

"Why were you guys so worried about me? Is it because you want to make Aoba happy? Is it because you knew he would get depressed if I left?" He would have continued rambling if Mizuki hadn't grabbed him by his jaw to silence him and force their eyes to lock.

"Noiz, we were worried about you because we care about you. Yeah, you do argue with us a lot, but that's because we're all still trying to get used to the idea of living in one big happy family with the others around. I snapped at Aoba when we got home because he didn't take his shoes off, for fuck's sake. Do you know how stupid that was, considering you were gone and that was probably the last thing on his mind? And you know what I did right after that? I apologized to him. Mink almost ripped Trip's head off about eating cake the other day before remembering that Trip has a sweet tooth and that's somewhat his way of coping with his problems. Once Mink remembered that he sat down and had a full-blown conversation with Trip about what was wrong for nearly thirty minutes until he finally cracked and told Mink that he'd aggravated Koujaku earlier by jokingly calling him a pansy for being a hair dresser. Once he'd gotten it off his chest Trip apologized to Koujaku and Koujaku just laughed and said he hadn't actually been mad, it had just taken him a few minutes to realize Trip was playing. Noiz, we're all still on edge here. It's not just you that's fighting with everyone, we're all fighting with each other. We're all finding our patience with each other, however slowly it's coming along. Just remember that, okay?" Over the course of his explanation he had begun to lovingly stroke Noiz's cheek, fingers pausing once in a while to play with his gauges gently. By the end of it Noiz was practically nuzzling Mizuki's hand in affection.

"...Okay..." It felt nice for someone to finally show him some affection. The others there never really paid him any mind.

Actually...now that he thought about it, they all went out of their way to make sure he was happy. When he'd randomly suggested having spaghetti for supper one night Koujaku had looked up a recipe and tried his hardest to make it the way he thought Noiz woul like it. The one time he'd gotten sick since moving in Clear had appointed himself as Noiz's caretaker, understanding that he couldn't get sick and likely wouldn't spread whatever it was (turned out he was just suffering from a small cold that got around to the other boys anyway.) When he'd had his first nightmare in the house Ren had heard him first and managed to get into his room to hold him until he'd finally gone back to sleep. When he'd try to binge game until three in the morning Mink would give him a death glare at eleven or twelve until he'd give in and go back to his room fully intending to contine his marathon until he hit his sheets and passed out cold. Aoba had made him a flower crown the spring before, and said crown was still hanging on his wall. Mizuki had taken care of the bar in his ear when he'd managed to get it infected around Christmas without question. Trip and Virus would still give him subtle reminders that hey, you can feel again, and you might want to be careful about what you do in case you hurt yourself. It was...nice.

"Thank you, Noiz." Mizuki pressed a kiss to Noiz's cheek and smiled. "Do you want to eat now?"

"Yeah..." Noiz reached over and opened one of the cans, shoved it between his legs, and grabbed a piece of pizza. "Why is there a whole box here? Did no one else take any?"

"Koujaku bought it for you as an apology for his comment this morning, we decided we'd leave it all for you." Noiz made a sound of acknowledgement and continued eating.

"...I guess I do pick on him a lot, don't I?" Noiz suddenly said. Mizuki looked over at him in confusion.

"That...was random."

"Koujaku. I pick on him a lot. I guess I deserve what he said to me this morning," he explained. Mizuki rolled his eyes and butted his shoulder into Noiz's.

"Don't think like that. He was just...a little on edge this morning, is all. He and Aoba had gotten into a mild argument last night before sex and it led to him getting kicked out of Aoba's room. He just kind of sulked back into his room for the rest of the night. He probably didn't get much sleep either." Noiz couldn't stop the smile at the thought of Koujaku being cock blocked.

"Guess I can't really blame him." He leaned into Mizuki's touch and purred happily.

"I'm gonna go take a shower." Noiz dropped the pizza in his hand and clutched at the other.

"Don't leave me alone!" He cringed at the sudden lapse in judgement; he hadn't intended to let anyone find out about his aversion to loneliness. It was a weakness, and one that could be exploited. He quickly covered his face and cringed. "Sorry...go ahead..."

"Noiz...do you not...like...being left alone..?" Mizuki asked.

"No!" Noiz realized he'd answered that a little too quickly, so he cleared his throat quietly. "No. That's not it."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I don't mind being left alone."

"Why did you keep this to yourself?"

"I didn't keep anything to myself."

"You could have said something to us."

"I DIDN'T WANT ANYONE TO USE IT AGAINST ME, OKAY!?" Mizuki flinched back at the outburst. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell like that. Please, just don't leave me alone. I'm begging you."

"I won't. I promise." Mizuki pulled Noiz's temple against his lips for a soft and affectionate kiss. "Do you want to get some sleep?"

"If you don't mind..." Noiz found himself wiping away tears he didn't know were falling and trying to strip out of his clothes. He belatedly registered just how dirty his clothes actually were and quickly scrambled off of the mattress. "Ah...I'm sorry. I dirtied your sheets."

"It's fine, I needed to change them. Mink wouldn't keep his hands off of me and we ended up in the bedroom for like, five hours. Can you help me strip the bed real quick?"

"Yeah, just let me get out of my clothes first." Noiz shrugged out of his clothes quickly, leaving only his underwear on, moved the pizza and soda off to the side of the room on the reading table, and helped Mizuki rip the sheets off of his bed. Mizuki moved over to his closet and pulled out a new set to throw on. "Here, let me do that, I messed them up."

"No, just help me. You get the left side, I'll take care of the right." Mizuki threw the sheets over to the blond, who quickly tucked them into their place before flopping down onto the plush mattress. "Tired, much?" he asked.

"You have no. Fucking. Idea," Noiz answered, quickly crawling underneath the covers and only leaving only the top of his head and his eyes out in the open. Mizuki couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped his lips.

"Cute." Mizuki crawled in beside Noiz, wrapping his arms tightly around the pierced blond and squeezing his arms tight. "You're warm..."

"I usually am," Noiz returned. He gently buried his head into the crook of Mizuki's neck and smiled. "Goodnight, Mizuki..."

"Goodnight, Noiz." Mizuki began stroking thick blond strands softly and gently, smiling to himself when Noiz began snoring softly.

And this idiot thought that no one cared about him.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, when Noiz woke up, he was expecting Mizuki to have forgotten about their conversation the night before and to have already left the bed and the room, but no; Mizuki's eyes were wide open and his hands were running through Noiz's hair.

"Morning, Noiz. How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Still a little tired, I guess...but it's nothing too bad," Noiz answered, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and sitting up. "What time is it?"

"Almost noon," Mizuki replied.

"Wait, shouldn't you be at work!?" Mizuki shrugged and sat up with him.

"You were asleep, and I didn't want to leave you." Noiz frowned.

"You could have called someone else to come in, you know," he spat.

"I couldn't get anyone," he said. He squeezed the small frame in his arms and sighed. "So I'm not opening up today."

"Idiot..." Noiz clicked his tongue and pried himself out of Mizuki's grip. "Come on...I'm hungry."

"Koujaku might be home for lunch again, and I think Aoba and Ren said they'd swing by. Clear might still be in his room, and I think Virus and Trip said they'll be free from noon to two. Mink also mentioned he'd try and make it back for lunch." Noiz blushed and looked off.

He was almost positive they were doing this to make sure he didn't run off again.

"They don't have to, I know they're all busy...call them and tell them not to co-"

"MizukI! Noiz! You awake?" Koujaku's voice saying his name sent light shivers down his spine; he was so used to hearing Koujaku call him "brat" or "asshole" that hearing his name was almost a pet name itself.

"Yeah, we're in my room!" Mizuki called back, climbing out of bed and over to his closet. "Do you want to borrow some of my clothes? I know they're a bit small on you, but..."

"No, it's fine. I'll just throw mine back on."

"Don't you want to change? Those are really dirty..."

"Doesn't bother me." Mizuki huffed and ripped Noiz's shirt out of his hand.

"Shut up. And put this on." A small ball of clothing was thrust into Noiz's hands. "I'll wait." The two stared each other down until Noiz relented and squeezed into the jeans and shirt handed to him. They fit a little tight on him but they weren't as constricting as he would have thought. Mizuki grabbed the blond's hand and gently dragged him out into the kitchen, where Koujaku and Clear were standing.

"Hey Mizuki, hey Noi-" Koujaku had to stop to make sure he wasn't seeing double. "Noiz...?"

"My clothes were dirty and Mizuki didn't want me wearing them again," Noiz answered. "So he gave me some of his."

"Ah. You...look good..." Instinctively Koujaku reached up to brush at his nose, to make sure it wasn't bleeding. The last thing he needed was the kid making him hot. Though it wouldn't be the first time... Of course the motion didn't go unnoticed by Noiz, who quickly jumped at the chance to poke fun at him.

"What's wrong, Old Man? Gonna get a nose bleed again?" he jeered. Koujaku nearly snapped at him until he saw the playful grin Noiz was giving him.

"Certainly won't get one from your ugly face," Koujaku picked back, smiling back at the other happily.

"You two seem to be getting along much better." Aoba set his house keys on the counter and took his messenger bag off. "That's good."

"Eh. FIgured I'd try and get along better with everyone else here, since they live here too." Noiz shrugged and dropped down onto the bar stool. It was unofficially his seat, anyway. "No sense fighting when I have to see them every morning."

"That's...a weird way of thinking, but I guess it works..." Aoba stuttered. Ren poked his head in for a second before stepping in beside Aoba.

"Mink is here," he announced. A second later and the burly male walked in with a slight smile on his face. Noiz quickly turned his attention elsewhere. He couldn't look at Mink. Not after the night before.

"Good afternoon, Noiz," he greeted. Noiz scratched gently at the side of his nose.

"Hi." He heard a deep baritone laugh and strong arms wrap around him. "Mink?"

"I'm glad you're back, Noiz," he whispered quietly, inches from a heavily pierced ear. Before the blond could answer the front door opened again.

"Ah, Noiz-san. You're awake."

"Glad to see you're up." Virus and Trip both smiled at him. the soft expression enough to make Noiz's heart melt a little. Now that everyone was present, Clear took the opportunity to drag Noiz off of the bar stool and put him in the plushest seat in the kitchen.

"Wait, what? But this is Aoba's seat."

"We need to have a talk about what happened yesterday, Noiz," Aoba explained.

All color drained from the blond's face at that sentence. They were all being so nice and affectionate because they were getting rid of him. His stomach began turning violent flips at the realization. After a moment he killed any and all emotions he could possibly feel.

"What about it?" Aoba was the first to speak up.

"You ran away while we were all gone, Noiz." Instead of flinching or apologizing he sat stock still, leaning against the back of the chair and staring froward like he could care less about the world. "Why?"

"Because Koujaku was being a dick to me." A brief look of indignation crossed the hair dresser's features before they morphed into one of apology.

"I'm sorry, Noiz." Aoba frowned.

"That's not the first time Koujaku has messed with you, though. What made this any different?" he asked. Noiz's eyes widened ever so slightly. There was no way he could tell them about his hatred of being left alone. He had promised Aoba that it didn't bother him anymore, and that he would be fine; if Aoba found out that Noiz had lied to him it would likely upset him.

"..." He couldn't think of an excuse.

"It wasn't Koujaku," Mizuki chimed in. Noiz's eyes visibly narrowed.

"Mizuki, I fucking swear, if you say anything else, I will-"

"What? Hurt me? There isn't much else you can do to me that I haven't been through. Leave me? You wouldn't only hurt me but everyone else here. Kill me? Not a single person standing in this room right now would let you three steps out the front door with my blood on your hands. So you can try your best, Noiz, but remember: whatever you decide on, if you're still alive you'll be all alone, and we saw how that played out yesterday." Mizuki hadn't meant to sound so cold or hurtful, but Noiz being so childish about something like this pissed him off.

Noiz was obviously hurt after such an outburst, especially since Mizuki had basically announced, "Hey, everyone! Noiz doesn't like to be left alone!"

"...Fuck you, Mizuki," he hissed. "I tell you something in confidence and you suddenly have to tell everyone!"

"Noiz, this is serious and not something to keep to yourself. This concerns us all."

"No, it doesn't! This is my problem, not yours!"

"This is all our problem!" Mink bellowed. The room fell silent at his booming voice. "Noiz is a part of this too. He's one of us. We need to take care of him just as much as we do Aoba, or Mizuki, or any of the others here. We don't need to play favorites in this relationship."

"Mink-san is right," Virus said. "The last thing any of need is to do so."

"We're all a little broken," Trip added. "Some of us more so than others. We don't need to pry at the cracks others have. We need to try and fix them any way we can. If that means rearranging our schedules a little bit so we never leave Noiz alone at the house then so be it. It's the least we can do to help out."

"I don't always need Clear at the bar. He can stay here and keep Noiz company while he's here waiting for us."

"I would be happy keeping Noiz-san company!" Clear cheered, lurching forward and squeezing the blond from behind. Noiz couldn't stop the smile spreading up on his face.

"So you guys really do care about me," he said louder than he admittedly should have.

"Of course we care about you," Ren said. "If we didn't we wouldn't have worried about you when you disappeared on us." The blond looked down in shame.

"Noiz...did you think we wouldn't love you if we found out?" Aoba asked.

"I thought you'd use it against me...like when I did something wrong, you'd all ignore me...or if you wanted me to do something and I wouldn't. I thought you'd leave me alone..." Clear squeezed him harder and nuzzled the back of his head.

"We would never do that to you, Noiz-san," he promised, a small tear rolling down the android's cheek and continuing down Noiz's back. "I don't like that you think like that...it makes me feel like we aren't doing enough to make Noiz-san happy!"

"But you guys are," the blond assured.

"Then why did you think we would use your fear as a punishment, Noiz-san?" Virus asked, tilting his head ever so slightly as though he were accusing Noiz of murder.

"Because of my own insecurities," he defended. "It's nothing any of you have done."

"That's just it. We haven't done anything about that," Mizuki pointed out. "We haven't done anything to prove otherwise."

"Why don't we all take Noiz-san out for dates!" Clear suggested. "We haven't done that!"

"Clear's right. I think that would be perfect for absolving Noiz's fears," Mink agreed. "Let's all take him out for a night."

"I want to take him out first!" Clear called, bouncing up and down slightly.

"Alright, alright." Aoba chuckled at Clear's enthusiasm on the matter. "Clear, you can take him out first."

"Virus and I aren't sharing," Trip pointed out quickly. "I know exactly where I'm taking him, and I'm positive Virus won't want to go there."

"Knowing you I won't want to, so I don't see any objections to that. I know where I want to go with him as well, and the place certainly doesn't suit your tastes."

"Nobody takes him out until we all know where we want to go," Koujaku warned. "It's only fair. And we each get one day out of a weekend. No three dates in one weekend and leaving an odd number for the final weekend. Saturdays will be our date nights. No staying the night anywhere either, and no making it a competition to see who can spend the most money on him. This is about making Noiz feel like we love him, got it?" Every head in the room bobbed gently. "Good."

"We didn't get to eat at all," Trip pointed out with a sigh. "And it's almost one."

"I made everyone lunches while Mizuki-san and Noiz-san were asleep!" Clear let Noiz go and darted over to the counter by the sink, where a row of paper sacks were lined up. I figured we would be talking to Noiz-san the entire time, so I thought ahead!"

"Thank you, Clear," Aoba said. A chorus of appreciation came up as well.

"Virus, Trip, You two said you woul be free until two, right?" Mizuki asked as bodies began piling past Clear and out the front door.

"Yeah, we mentioned it to Clear," Trip answered. "Why?"

"Could you two stay here while I run up to the Needle? I realized I left my sketchbook up there and I was wanting to work on something today."

"Of course, Mizuki-san." Virus walked around behind Noiz and kissed him on the top of his head before urging him to his feet. "Why don't you come with us to our room, Noiz-san?"

"Okay..." Out of everyone there he'd spent the least amount of time in the room belonging to these two. He'd been in there once for five minutes while Virus was looking for his tie, and he couldn't see anything. Virus, though, could see perfectly fine, as he found his tie and ushered the youngest blond out with him. When Virus and Trip pulled Noiz into their room the lights were out, as they had been before.

"How do you two see with no lights on?" he asked.

"Have you never noticed?" Trip asked. Virus nudged the door shut and Noiz jumped.

Four blue lights were inches apart, two pairs attached to a skull. They weren't even really that far apart in height, so he couldn't tell who was who.

"What the hell?" Noiz asked.

"When our eyes were swapped out they were fitted with small lights in the irises," Virus explained. "They're very faint, and once we're more than a few feet from you you can't see them. They're bright enough for us to see in complete darkness, though, and very useful."

"We also have contacts that act as 'sunglasses' that kill the lights so we can sneak around better in the dark," Trip explained. "Virus and I used to wander around Platinum Jail during power outages and scare the piss out of people."

"You did, Trip. I spent most of my time trying to help the idiots find whatever had fucked up and fix it," Virus snapped back. He blinked and the blue lights to Noiz's right disappeared for a brief second. Now Noiz knew which set of eyes was which person's.

"Hey, slight suggestion. Perhaps you two could turn the lights on so I can see properly? If you don't mind, that is," Noiz growled.

"Ah, right. You don't have implants like we do. Trip, you're closer. Hit the light switch, please." The lights off to Noiz's left vanished, presumably because their owner had turned around, and heavy footfalls marked his movements over to the door. Just before the lights cut back on Virus closed his eyes. Noiz blinked a few times to correct his vision.

Two beds sat against the far wall, one a large four-poster bed and the other a simple metal-framed bed. Both were covered in thick black comforters, black and white pillows propped up against the headboards. A thin black layer of silk was tied to the top of the canopy bed. Noiz took a wild guess and assumed that was Virus's bed. His suspicions were confirmed when Virus hopped up onto the mattress after pulling the covers away and patting the spot beside him. "Come on, Noiz-san. Why don't you join us?" Almost on cue Trip climbed on the foot of the bed and flopped back, a sucker produced from the tray beside the smaller bed stuck between his teeth. Noiz swallowed harshly; he'd heard stories of the atrocities these two were capable of. But they were reformed...right? Deciding against kindly declining the their offer in lieu of standing in the middle of their room like an idiot he heaved himself up onto the plush mattress. It was amazingly comfortable; Noiz flopped down with his head on Virus's pillows and groaned. No wonder Virus didn't care to sleep in anyone else's room. His bed was heaven.

"I'm assuming you like my bed?" Virus asked, lips crooked up in mild amusement.

"Yes, it's amazing," Noiz answered. He buried his face into the fluffy pillows, inhaling a scent that he instantly identified as not Virus's put Trip's. "What?"

"Hmm?" Noiz sat up and cocked his head slightly.

"Do you two trade pillows or something?" Trip laughed and propped himself back on one arm, the other raising up to pull his sucker out of his mouth.

"Ah. Nah, I usually spend most of my time on Virus's bed. Not really doing anything, his bed's just really comfortable." Trip stuck his sucker back into his mouth and smirked lightly. Noiz ignored him and turned his attention back to Virus.

"Sometimes I have to forcibly kick him out of my bed because he won't fucking leave me alone," Virus admitted with a cheeky grin. "And sometimes I have to drag him over because I want him."

"Trip? Being dragged into sex? Pfft. He seems like the type that would barely be able to keep his hands off of anyone he's even remotely interested in, actually," Noiz muttered.

"Sometimes that's the case; other times it's hell trying to get a rise out of him." Without warning Trip flicked his sucker at the tray beside his bed and shot up to pin Noiz to the bed.

"Today it's the previous," the blond purred, smirking at the light of understanding that brightened Noiz's emeralds. His lips locked tightly against Noiz's as his fingers tugged at the tight-fitting clothes squeezing Noiz's frame. Noiz pushed Trip up as best he could and helped strip himself, eager for the massive blond's touch. He'd never actually been in bed with either of these two, and his body had been itching for the opportunity. Without warning Virus maneuvered behind Noiz and began kissing and sucking on the piercings still in the back of his neck. Noiz jerked his hips forward and cried out, nails digging in to Trip's shoulders.

"Noiz-san...this is the first time we've had you in our bed, isn't it?" Virus commented, reaching forward to pop the button on the jeans Noiz was wearing.

"Y-yeah..." Noiz stuttered, a small whimper escaping his lips a second later when Trip nipped at his jaw. "Ahhh...Trip...Virus..."

"Raise your hips, Noiz. We still have to get you undressed~." Trip pulled Noiz up a little more for Virus to work the youngest blond's pants and underwear down his hips, managing to pull them off with minimal problems and tossing them onto the floor beside the bed. "Hmm. Nipple piercings. Interesting." The larger blond reached up and tugged gently at a silver ball, not wanting to be too rough with Noiz. A low, contented moan slipped between his lips at the slight pain Trip's pulling caused.

"I think Noiz-san might enjoy a little bit of pain." Virus licked up the back of Noiz's neck and stopped just below his hairline. The body in his grip shivered lightly.

"The question is, how much does he like?" Trip shot forward and pulled a pert nipple between his lips, sucking and nipping at it lightly before pulling back and simply running his tongue along and around it. Noiz bit at his lip and arched into their touches without realizing he was doing it.

Virus let his hand snake around to Noiz's front to grip at his dick, fingers dancing along the metal balls on the underside and fingernails tapping at them to send gentle vibrations along the shaft. Noiz gasped; he'd never actually thought to do that before. It felt weird, but at the same time he couldn't deny that he enjoyed the feeling.

"I think Noiz likes it when you do that," Trip whispered, chuckling lightly when a hard tap of Virus's nails made him jerk a bit. "I think he really likes it when you do that."

"Sh-shut it," Noiz whimpered, fighting to get rid of Trip's tie. Trip paused in his teasing to help and remove the offending article before finding a use for it and tying it around Noiz's wrists. The bonds weren't too tight, just enough to render his hands useless. Noiz opened his mouth to protest before another piece of material covered his mouth. Virus's tie, he assumed.

"Now who's 'shutting it,' Noiz-san?" Virus blew softly into Noiz's ear, making the pierced blond wiggle around in Virus's arms.

"Hey, I had a use for that!" Trip pouted, referring to the now-silenced mouth. Virus looked up at the blond and huffed.

"We don't have time for that, Trip. Besides, I would have thought we would be focusing on Noiz-san right now." Their eyes locked for a second and Trip understood what he meant.

"Ah."

"Untie his wrists." Trip pulled a section of the tie and watched as Noiz's wrists fell loose, smirking as Virus quickly grabbed them and pulled them around Noiz's back. Trip handed his tie over and watched the other blond work his magic.

"You know, Virus...I don't think Noiz would be all that opposed to being strung up while we fuck him senseless..." Trip commented absently. "Perhaps you could find an actual use for that rope you've got, since I won't let you tie me up..."

"Perhaps." Virus slid out from behind Noiz and jerked him back, pausing for a moment to make sure there were no signs of discomfort. When Noiz simply stared back at them with glazed-over eyes he smirked and scooted back a bit. "I think that's good enough, don't you?"

"Yep." Trip leaned forward suddenly and let his lips close around Noiz's swollen cock, tongue flicking out and putting pressure on the piercing at the tip. Noiz jerked at the contact.

"Would you like Trip to keep going?" Noiz nodded weakly, trying to sit himself up so he could watch. Virus smirked and pushed him back down before joining Trip, locking lips with him and trying to force the other's tongue against his. Their tongues twined and curled around the tip of Noiz's cock. The sensations made his hips buck up and push the tip into Trip's cheek before both blonds pinned his hips down with their hands and continued their dance. Noiz would have begged them to stop teasing him and fuck him already but his mouth was still gagged by the material between his teeth. Finally he felt something prod against his entrance and he groaned in anticipation. A perfectly manicured digit slipped inside of him and all tension in his body trained out. Virus chuckled as best he could considering his mouth was occupied and continued to move his finger around, aiming straight for the blond's prostate and pushing against it violently.

Noiz wasn't sure just how to respond. He'd never had two people go down on him at the same time before and it was maddening. He couldn't figure out which tongue he wanted to focus on more and eventually just let his mind meld the two sensations together and send waves of pleasure coursing through his body. Even if his hips were pinned his legs were still free and they began scraping his heels along the soft material of Virus's covers. One of the tongues broke away from the other and moved down to lap at the piercings running along the underside. Noiz moaned loudly and began whimpering.

"What's wrong, Noiz?" Trip asked, pulling back. The tongue against his piercings didn't move. "Do you want us to let you come already?" The younger began frantically nodding and fidgeting. "Alright then." He moved back to his position before, increasing the pressure on the tip and nibbling at the piercing gently. Virus let his teeth close gently around the shaft and began flicking his finger rapidly against Noiz's insides. He didn't last long; only a few hurried minutes later he was groaning and pushing his hips up as he released. Trip smirked around the throbbing organ and continued sucking, fully intending on milking Noiz's release until the very end. Once he was satisfied that Noiz had finished he pulled away and swallowed happily, slipping his tongue out to wipe up a small bit that dribbled out of the corner of his mouth. Virus leaned forward and quickly removed his ruined tie from Noiz's mouth before jerking Trip's from around his wrists.

"Enjoy the treat, Noiz-san?" he asked, smirking slightly. Noiz let out a few shaky breaths and nodded happily. "Good. Then that means Trip and I did a good job. Would you like to stay in here?" This time he shook his head from side to side, forcing himself to sit up slowly. "Alright. Would you like to borrow some of our clothes this time?"

"No...I'll just put Mizuki's back on..." He sounded slightly out of breath when he spoke. "You two probably need to leave...I know Clear is here, I'll be fine."

"I'll go find him real quick," Trip volunteered, darting out of the room and into the hallway before Noiz could stop him. Noiz grunted and forced himself out of bed.

"Hand me my clothes." Virus slipped over onto the other side of the bed and tossed Noiz's clothing over to him. A moment later and Trip poked his head through the door.

"He's in the living room. Virus, we've gotta leave now. Otherwise we'll be late." Virus nodded curtly and turned to Noiz. He opened his mouth to ask if it was alright for them to leave before the pair were waved off. He shrugged and followed Trip out of the house. A second later and Clear opened the door the rest of the way.

"Noiz-san! Are you hungry?" Clear asked. Noiz stared for a second, pants halfway up his legs, and burst into laughter.

"Yeah...guess I'm a little hungry." He pulled his jeans up the rest of the way and grabbed his shirt before following the robot outside to the living room. Sometimes Clear was just too adorable for his own good.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, this fic has gotten so much love~! It almost makes me giddy.

Koujaku tugged a few strands of hair back and eyed them carefully. They weren't split too far up, in fact they'd only just begun to die. He smiled.

"You've been taking better care of your hair than you used to, Mink," he commented absently. He could remember the first time he'd cut the other's hair. He'd had to take nearly all of it with him after it had dried out. The only thing keeping the dead strands in was the fact that they were woven together like a blanket into thick dreads and dip-dyed in some natural hair dye that smelled strongly of cinnamon. He'd offered to continue dying it with the promise of letting Mink continue to make the dye himself. Mink had gracefully declined, saying that he no longer needed to do so.

"After the last time you cut it you wouldn't shut up for a week," he answered calmly. "I figured this would make things go easier today."

"And you were right." A few quick snips followed before more of his hair was pulled back. "I don't even have to trim much off. And it feels much better now. I'm almost jealous of you, Mink. You're doing the same thing I am with mine and yet yours almost feels better than mine." A low baritone laugh resounded in answer.

"Thank my heritage." Small shivers ran down his spine as Koujaku's fingers brushed against the nape of his neck.

"You look wonderful with your hair down like this," the hair dresser said suddenly. The comment caught Mink off guard, and he twitched. "Careful, you almost made me take half of your hair off!"

"Do...do I really look good this way?" he asked nervously. Koujaku leaned into his line of sight.

"Do I really need to answer that?" He straightened back up and continued to eye Mink's hair. "There. I think you're done. I didn't have to do as much work as I thought!"

"So I look good with my hair loose like this?" Koujaku gently set his scissors down and stepped in front of Mink. His hands came up to softly cup his jaw and tilt it upwards to match their eyes.

"Mink...you look amazing like this. And you looked amazing with your hair in dreads. Both looks fit you perfectly. Have you never noticed when someone else is in your bed and they start toying with your hair? It's because it's loose, and they can watch the individual strands fall down when they let them go. Noiz will keep a death grip on your locks when he's going to sleep and he'll only let go when he has fallen asleep. Aoba keeps the strands pressed to his nose while he's trying to sleep. Clear will sit their and braid your hair after you've gone to sleep. Virus and Trip will pick each individual strand out by their color and shade. Mizuki and Ren both have this weird thing where they'll chew on it when they're sleeping."

"And you?" Koujaku couldn't keep the smile from his lips even if he tried.

"Well...I'll run my fingers through it to just feel it run along my fingers. And when you have nightmares I'll stroke your hair until you finally calm down. I've also noticed something else with you." He leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to the tip of Mink's nose. "When you're sleeping next to someone you don't let them go. You squeeze them almost tight enough to pop their heads off, and you mutter in your sleep. Some nights it's about how much you love us. Some nights it's an apology to your village for what happened." Koujaku almost felt bad for adding that last part.

"Then I should apologize to you for saying such things. I don't need to drag you into my past as I did with Aoba." Koujaku playfully tapped the side of his head.

"Don't. You can't help it. We've all had things in our past that haunt us."

"Like you and your mother."

"How did you...?"

"I'm not the only one who talks in his sleep, Red." Crimson eyes turned down in almost shame. "But don't worry. That I'm not the only one eases my conscience a bit." Broad, calloused hands came up to rub gently at a dark cheek. Koujaku found himself unconsciously leaning into the touch. "On another subject, how's Maniac?" Koujaku grinned lightly.

"I wish you'd call him Noiz," Koujaku huffed. "But he's doing fine. Much better, in fact. I think us worrying about him like we did and admitting to Tae why we all keep jobs helped ease his worries."

"I was hoping that would be the case. Aoba seemed distraught when he was found missing." Koujaku snorted and moved over to the door to grab the broom he kept there.

"Don't even try and lie, you were worried about the rat bastard too," he joked lightly.

"I never said I wasn't, merely that it bothered Aoba," Mink defended with a soft smile. "So how will I repay the trim this time?"

"When you take Noiz out, make it worth the kid's while. I don't know what everyone else is doing but I...I'm a little broke right now, so I can't really take him out. So I'm planning something cheap but meaningful." Mink frowned.

"I could always lend you date money, you know. It would be proper repayment for the trim."

"No. I said this wasn't a competition to see who could spend the most money on him. I'm sticking by that. And besides. Sometimes the best dates are the simplest." He began sweeping the short brown trimmings over into the pile he kept in the corner for such things. Later that day when he was ready to close shop he'd sweep them into a bag and throw them away in the dumpster not far from the shop.

"And you don't want any of us doing the same, right?" Mink asked. When Koujaku nodded he grinned. "Understood. I had planned something completely different, actually. I am also of the persuasion that sometimes the simplest dates are the best."

"Mmm. Now I don't feel so bad for barely spending anything on him. At least I know I won't be the only one." He leaned the broom against the wall and huffed. "Though judging from what Virus said he's going to blow stupid money on Noiz and make the rest of us look bad."

"It wouldn't surprise me if Virus did that, yes. He seems to be rather flashy." Mink took the comb sitting not far from him and began combing his hair, working gently at each knot to avoid breaking his hair and pissing Koujaku off. "But I wouldn't expect anything less of Virus. I'm assuming that's his way of showing he cares."

"He and Trip apparently didn't have much of a childhood, though I don't know the specifics. It doesn't surprise me that neither of them are completely right in the head." Taking a quick survey of his client list he groaned and clicked his tongue. "Dammit...I forgot about that..."

"Something wrong, Red?"

"I have to do three girls' hair back to back in three hours, and the style they wanted takes me an hour alone to do and another fifteen minutes wait to make sure it holds right. And if it doesn't I have to start all over again." He sighed lowly and dropped the paper back into it's place. Already a vein was threatening to throb in the side of his temple. "I'll need to relax after today."

"Then I'll have you a hot bath ready when you come home tonight," Mink promised. "I'll even put bubbles and a present in it."

"The bubbles sound nice, but the present terrifies me." After a thought he said, "Then again, it's you. Your presents are harmless, and usually greatly appreciated. Are you using some of your homemade bubble bath?"

"If you'd like me to." Mink laid the comb back down in it's place and stood up.

"Would you please? Preferably something jasmine scented. Maybe orchid. Do those smells go good together?"

"To certain people they do. I actually have jasmine and orchid oil in my things, if you'd like to find out beforehand if you'd like it."

"If it won't be too much trouble."

"Of course not." Mink kissed the shorter's cheek and stepped outside for a few moment before returning with two small bottles in hand. "Here you are, Red."

"Thank you." He popped the corks open and held them under his nose. "Mmm...these do smell amazing together."

"Then I'll use them in your bath tonight." The bottles were recorked and handed back to Mink. "I have some things I have to take care of right now. What time do you expect to be home?"

"Aah. The way things are looking it'll be around seven or eight."

"Call me when you're on your way home, then. I don't want the water cold when you come home." Koujaku smiled and pulled Mink in for a sweet kiss.

"I'll make sure to do that. Now go, I don't want whatever it is you're doing to go sour because I kept you for sentimental reasons." Mink pecked Koujaku on the lips again before strutting outside. Koujaku brought his fingers up to touch at his lips and let his eyes slip closed.

Mink's lips always felt like rose petals against wherever he pressed them to, and every kiss was laced with love. His kisses were like drugs that Koujaku couldn't get enough of. None of the others had such a firm control over him like Mink did. The elder male knew this all too well.

And yet Mink never once abused that control. There was a reason Koujaku was partial to him. He rarely raised his voice unless needed. He understood the boundaries between the others in the house, and if he crossed them he was quick to apologize and do his best to correct the mistake. He'd affectionately earned the nickname "gentle giant" among the men as well.

...And jokingly the other nickname of "Daddy" whenever someone wanted to be a smartass. Namely Noiz.

He shook his head to clear it out and moved to ready his salon for his next clients.

 

"Clear, be careful! I don't want you dropping another bottle on the floor," Mizuki warned.

"I understand, Mizuki-san!" The android smiled and grabbed another bottle at his feet. "I'm sorry I've broken so many bottles, Mizuki-san..."

"Dont apologize, Clear. The others help keep me stocked, and I understand that accidents happen. Just be a little more careful, alright?" Mizuki grabbed a fresh rag from under the bar and began wiping it down. "If you can't reach a bottle don't hesitate to grab a ladder or a step stool or something, okay?"

"I promise, Mizuki-san!" He tapped the bottle into its place and grabbed another one. "Mizuki-san, I've never seen this bottle before."

"Hmm? Oh. That one." He took the bottle out of Clear's hands and set it off to the side. "I bought that for my date with Noiz. I forgot I'd put it there."

"Oh! You know what you're going to do for Noiz-san! Can I ask what it is?" Clear prodded.

"I want it to be a surprise."

"I promise I won't tell Noiz-san!" Mizuki glanced over at the bottle and back down at his feet.

"I don't want to say. I know you won't tell, I just...want it to be a surprise."

"I'm sure Noiz-san will love it, whatever it is!" Clear smiled softly and went to put another bottle in its place. "Don't worry, you aren't the only one who isn't spending much on Noiz-san."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"Mink-san and Koujaku-san have both said they were planning simple dates. I think Trip-san said he wasn't even planning on spending anything on him, with whatever he was planning. I don't know about the others, though."

"What about you?" Mizuki asked.

"Oh, I'm-"

"Hey, Mizuki. Hey, Clear."

"Hello Noiz-san!"

"Hey Noiz. What brings you here?"

"Virus and Trip had to go in and Ren and Aoba are doing a few last-minute errands. Honestly I think they're trying to get things settled for the dates. But they were acting a little strange this morning. Aoba was giving me dirty looks when he woke up, and Ren was fidgeting around and wouldn't go near Aoba." Noiz dropped down onto one of the stools and threw his beanie down. "Did I do something wrong?"

"I don't think so. Aoba was probably in a bad mood this morning. It sounded like Virus and Trip kept him up until three this morning. They're probably sleep-deprived as all hell right now. Just give them a little bit, I'm sure they'll calm down," Mizuki assured him. He took a glass from his side and smiled. "How about I treat you to a drink? You look like you could use it."

"A drink doesn't sound too bad right now..." Noiz admitted weakly. He was trying to think back to the past few days, but the only thing he could think of that would have possibly made Aoba and Ren mad at him would be his disappearance, which both had assured Noiz that they weren't mad at him for it, only worried about him and wanting to do everything they could to keep him from doing it again.

And so far they were doing a sub-par job of it.

"Here. White Russian. Don't know if you'll like it, but the way I make it it'll knock you on your ass," Mizuki explained with a smile. The glass made a hollow sound when it connected with the wood of the bar. Behind Mizuki Clear finished restocking the bottles and turned to Noiz.

"Are you ready for our date Noiz-san?" he asked. His voice sounded chipper and excited. A bright light shone in his eyes. For a moment Noiz almost felt bad for shit talking how the boys were handling his disappearance.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it," the German answered. More than likely, he decided, Clear would just take him someplace that he thought Noiz would like but in all actuality he would probably hate and have to grit his teeth through it to make Clear happy. In fact he was almost positive that was EXACTLY what all of them were going to do. Well...maybe not Mizuki. Mizuki seemed like the type that would actually make a decent attempt at a date.

Sometimes he was simply frustrated at dating so many men so much older than him.

Resigning himself to his terrible fate he feigned a smile and knocked his drink back. Letting Clear down wouldn't be that terrible, and he could easily fake genuine enjoyment during the 'date.' When it was Mizuki's turn he would probably apologize to Mizuki and make another disappearance and crawl back to Germany to apologize to his family. It wouldn't be too hard, and it probably wouldn't actually cause too much of a stir.

"Good, because we've all agreed on our dates. You're going with Clear tomorrow."

"Is it really already Friday?" Mizuki nodded in answer. "Huh. I must have slept through most of this week then."

"I guess so. Hey, did you ever get around to taking care of the AllMates?"

"Shit, I forgot about that! I need to go take care of that. Thank you for the drink, Mizuki! I'll see you later tonight!" Noiz took three steps and fell face-first. "Woah."

"Heheh. You should probably wait here for a bit until the alcohol wears off." Noiz waited for a moment before picking himself up and dusting himself off.

"No, I'm fine. Just took a few seconds to adjust." Without another word he walked out, walking in a perfectly straight line and confusing Mizuki.

"How...?"

"I don't know either, Mizuki-san."

 

"There. All done." Noiz closed the clasp on Usagimadoki's maintenance panel and waited as he kicked back on.

"P! Viruses removed! Malware eradicated! Operating system up to date! Functioning at maximum capacity!" The small cube bounced over to sit beside Rurukan.

"Would you please consider giving him a new AI?" the cockatoo begged, glaring down at the AllMate with his good eye. "He can be rather...annoying."

"Would you shut the fuck up?" Beni suddenly chimed in. "You can be just as annoying as him!"

"Would you guys please stop arguing?" Noiz growled. "I don't want to listen to you bicker with each other right now."

"Then why don't you leave?" Rurukan sighed.

"Because I still have to work on Hersha and Welter, that's why. Where are those two, anyway?"

"They're likely in their master's room. They hardly ever leave it. They barely even acknowledge our existence, and they won't say a word to us," Rurukan continued.

"Yeah. They act like snobby bastards!"

"Guys, that's because they don't have speech functions. Virus and Trip are the only ones that talk to them. They understand everyone, they just only communicate with those two. It's why they never leave." Noiz sighed and straightened himself up. He'd have to do it at some point. "Let me know if anything else goes wrong."

"P! Okay!" Usagimadoki bounced a few more times until Rurukan set a talon on him to hold him still.

"Would you please calm down?" he grumbled. The trio of AllMates continued to argue with each other much to Noiz's amusement as he left and made his way down to the two blond's room. When he opened it he grumbled to himself; did those two never turn their lights on? He couldn't even remember what side the damn light switch was on. He groped around on the wall to his right for a minute or two before he finally found it and flicked it on. Curled up on Virus's larger bed was both Hersha and Welter, wrapped around each other and sleeping peacefully. Noiz felt a little bad about waking them up, but it was a necessary evil.

"Hersha. Welter. Wake up." Four blue eyes blinked up at him, and both AllMates raised their heads at him. "Maintenance time you two." Welter growled lowly, but laid his head back down nonetheless. Noiz straddled across the lion's back and moved the tuft of his mane off to the side before working his maintenance panel off. He then connected his Coil to the AllMate's system and scanned through the mass of coding. "There's a bug in your optical programming. I'll fix that, it won't be too much of a problem. It looks like there might also be something wrong with your communications array. Have you been having problems talking to Trip?" The black head in front of him bobbed slightly. "Hnn...I don't know if I can fix that. I'll try, but I don't have any guarantees. If it doesn't work I'll let Trip know. Right now I'm about to fix the bug in your eyes. Make a noise when it's fixed." Noiz fiddled with the coding until Welter let out a low roar. "There?" Another curt nod. "Right. Let me work on Hersha real quick, then I'll try and repair your communications array."

The same problems cropped up with Hersha, which annoyed Noiz. Had he really gotten this lazy the last time he'd done maintenance on these two?

Oh. Right. Virus and Trip and only just let him work on the two AllMates. No wonder there were such simple problems like this. Well...the bug in the optical systems was minor. The communications was a different story. While he was sifting through the lines of code he found there were entire sections missing, and since he was unable to guess what was supposed to be there, he only assumed the missing parts were what connected them to their master's eyes. It also looked like there were a few lines missing, which Noiz remembered were for speech.

"Ah...I can't fix it. I've been trying for the last half hour, and nothing's changed."

"What's wrong with them?" Virus tugged his tie loose and stepped into the room.

"Have you two been having problems talking to these two?" Noiz asked, eyes flickering between his Coil screen and Virus. Trip moved in beside the elder blond.

"Sometimes, yes. Is there a problem with communications?" Trip asked. Noiz nodded and unhooked his Coil from Hersha's access port.

"It looks to be that way. There's entire strings of coding missing, and I don't have a master script of it, so I can't fix it. Do either of you?"

"I'm afraid not, Noiz-san. We weren't expecting anything to come up."

"Looks like we should have let Noiz work on them a lot sooner than we did," Trip sighed.

"I don't think I'll be able to fix the connection between your eyes, but if you give me a few hours I might be able to find proper voice boxes for them and possibly be able to program them for speech," Noiz promised. "If you don't mind." The two older blonds looked between each other before whispering to each other hurriedly. Finally both nodded in agreement and straightened up.

"It would likely be the best course at this point," Virus finally answered.

"Right. I'll be busy for a while, so they'll be disposed of for a bit. You need anything before I get to work?"

"No, no."

"Good. Now leave me be, I need to be able to concentrate while I'm working."

 

Koujaku's feet hurt. His shoulders ached, his eyes were barely staying open, and his back ached almost enough to cripple him. When he walked through the front door of the house all he wanted was to curl up in bed and sleep, and he was halfway to his room before he remembered his promise to Mink. Instead he made a detour for the bathroom that the three eldest shared between themselves on the first floor. Halfway down the hall he could smell the jasmine and orchid already wafting from the bathroom and quite a bit of the stress he was carrying fell away. When he opened the door he felt the steam billow out at him and the scent grow stronger.

"Wow. Mink wasn't kidding when he said he'd have a hot bath ready for me," he commented lowly to himself.

"Did you think I wouldn't?" Koujaku jumped and yelped in surprise. "Did I scare you Red?"

"A little bit, yes. I wasn't expecting you to still be in here..." Koujaku explained. He worked his kimono off and laid it out before stripping the rest of the way.

"I promised you a present, did I not?" Mink asked with a crooked grin. He moved a few bubbles out of the way and beckoned Koujaku in to join him. "Well, here's your present."

"And it's a very nice present," the hair dresser agreed. He eased down into the water and moaned happily. The heat worked most of the tension from his muscles and relaxed his shoulders. Mink pulled him over to his side of the bathtub and began rubbing at still-tense shoulders. Thick thumbs dug into equally thick knots to work them loose.

"You're far too tense, Red. You need to relax more. You're carrying all of your tension up here in your shoulders. Spread it throughout your body. With less tension in one spot it's much more manageable," Mink explained as he worked. Low moans from Koujaku with each push made Mink squirm under the water. The sweet sounds were making him grow hard.

"I'm trying, Mink," Koujaku defended, completely oblivious to the swell threatening to brush against the small of his back and the subtle movements behind him. "But considering how much I use my hands and-oooohhh...and move my shoulders it's not easy."

"Perhaps you should consider meditating when you have a break," Mink suggested, voice low to hide the lust burning in it. Sex could wait until after the bath. It wouldn't do to ruin the sweetness of what Mink was doing with something like that. "Not only will it clear your mind but it will also likely help relieve some of the tension you feel in your muscles."

"Mmmnnn...but what about those days when I don't have a break?" Koujaku asked.He was suddenly very thankful for the steam in the room to disguise the heat spreading across his body in lust.

"Even if it's only five minutes, the slightest bit will help." Mink was finding it harder to keep his hands up where they were at now. They were trying to drift lower on the other's body. To ease the urge he let his right hand gently trace along the lines of Koujaku's tattoos for a moment before coming back up to rub at his shoulders more.

"You've got a point..." Under the water his own hands were struggling to keep from running along muscly legs on either side of him. The temptation to touch them was overpowering though, and before he could stop himself he found his hands squeezing Mink's knees. "But I've got another idea for stress relief."

"And what idea would that be?" Mink asked while his fingers walked down to the small of Koujaku's back.

"I think you know what I'm referring to..." Koujaku leaned back against Mink's chest and nipped at his chin.

 

Virus padded along the hall with a towel wrapped loosely around his waist and another draped across his arm, intending on taking a nice bath to relax. The smell of jasmine and orchid reached him and he paused. Was Mink already in there? He thought he vaguely remembered Mink mentioning that he was planning on running a bubble bath for Koujaku, but he wasn't sure. Just as he was about to open the door he heard a quiet moan and stopped.

"Mink..."

Virus promptly turned around and made his way over to the middle bathroom.

 

The next day, Clear took Noiz out on his first date. Their destination was a tall cliff, settling down just as the sun set to watch a pod of dolphins swim and dance around before taking him along to watch a field of jellyfish swim by lazily. They nearly didn't make it back before the agreed upon curfew, and when they walked in, soaking wet and giggling, Mink just gave them a warning glance before leaving the kitchen to return to his room.

Next, Mizuki took Noiz out to dinner, nothing relatively fancy at his insistence. They talked the night away, stumbling back home long before they were needed drunk off their feet and falling over each other. The pair had made an unexpected stop by the bar to grab a few things, and Mizuki had distracted them by pulling out a rare bottle of wine and deciding to try it. Koujaku and Trip had to drag them back to their rooms, otherwise they would have stayed laid out in the front room.

Koujaku decided a simple date was better, so he decided they should stay home and let him cook. He didn't spend much on what he made, but he knew that it would be enough to thrill Noiz. It was his favorite dish from Germany, some confusing words that he had no clue how to read but thankfully Virus had enough knowledge to tell him what was necessary and how, exactly, to cook it. With a few misdirection tactics Virus even managed managed to figure out how his mother would have made it. Needless to say, Koujaku was a very happy man the next morning, smiling as Noiz muttered softly in his sleep.

Trip pulled some of Virus's old clothes out for their date, smirking to himself when he discovered they fit perfectly. He then dragged Noiz out to a concert and didn't hesitate to walk by the guard at the gate. When Noiz asked him Trip just shrugged and said that the guy owed him a few favors, and he decided to use one on their date. Then Noiz discovered Trip had taken him to a sold-out concert that Noiz had mentioned wanting to see but didn't have enough money for, and he nearly laid Trip out when the concert started. For three days afterwards neither Noiz nor Trip could speak very well, their voices hoarse from screaming, and not just from the concert.

Virus also took him out to dinner, apologizing that this was all he could think of when Mizuki had already done the same. Noiz didn't mind, and when Virus dragged him in front of the most expensive restaurant on the island he promptly told Virus that he didn't need to spend that much on him, that he wasn't worth the money. Of course Virus argued and forced him inside. Noiz felt out of place, and Virus knew it. He apologized over and over again for making Noiz feel awkward, but Noiz just brushed him off and tried to enjoy the date. Eventually he forgot where he was and the pair carried on conversation just as he and Mizuki had on their date. The only difference was they didn't stumble home drunk like he and Mizuki had.

Mink also settled for a simple date, deciding to take Noiz out on a picnic in the city park, the lights surrounding them blinking out as more and more people went to bed. The stars shone beautifully above them. They didn't say much, just cuddled against each other and ate. The few words that passed between each other were quiet comments about Mink's work or Noiz's hobbies or some other random thing. Noiz wasn't sure when but he knew he'd drifted off at some point because when he woke Mink was carrying him and his hand was wrapped up tight in long brown strands. He forced himself awake and quickly apologized before trying to roll out of his arms to walk himself. Mink grunted in warning and kept walking.

Aoba and Ren decided to consolidate their date to a movie night, mostly because neither one really knew what else to do. The three sat on their bed all night watching older horror movies that had Ren cowering under the covers and whimpering lowly every time someone screamed. Aoba and Noiz felt bad for it, but Ren assured them he didn't mind. Finally the other two pulled Ren in for a tight hug, which calmed him down enough to let him sit with them and watch the movies. Eventually they were distracted with talking to each other over actually watching the screen, and a few things led to another before Noiz found himself pinned between Aoba and Ren and almost ruining his voice again.

At the end of each date, when he was settling down for bed either alone or with someone else, he realized that he'd never once even considered trying to leave as he'd planned before. He'd thought they wouldn't try, that they'd all only half-ass it with him just to make it seem like they tried. But they really did their best to make him feel loved. Even if he did almost get stung by jellyfish with Clear, stumbled home drunk with Mizuki, didn't get to go out with Koujaku, nearly destroyed his vocal cords with Trip, felt completely out of place with Virus, didn't say much with Mink, and spent most of the night helping Aoba calm Ren down, he felt genuinely loved. And he never wanted it any other way.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO I don't know if I really like where this is heading, I've been in a funk lately, but yeah. Let me know what you guys think~!  
> ALSO: I am considering making the chapters longer (I usually average about 2500-3000 a chapter, but lately I've been hitting the 3000-4000 mark and it still feels a little short). Any qualms from you guys?

It was a few days after Noiz's final date, and Mink was walking with Virus and Trip in tow. The trio had decided to take their lunch break together, and at Virus's insistence they were on their way to a quaint and adorable cafe.

"Virus says they have the best coffee, but I love their sweets," Trip commented. "Their eclairs are to die for."

"I don't usually indulge in such things," Mink pointed out. "Sugar hurts my teeth." Virus frowned softly.

"Hmm...perhaps I should try and make one of my cakes?" he asked quietly. He'd been itching to do something in the kitchen lately, but Koujaku had all but taken over that part of the house.

"Ooohh, if you do that you have to make your Better Than Sex cake," Trip purred excitedly.

"Trip, that will likely be a little too rich for Mink-san," Virus sighed. "I don't think he would like that." Trip pouted, hands diving into his pockets.

"Aww, you're not fun!" Mink shook his head at the pair. They seemed to relaxed around each other...he'd watched them try to interact with the others and noticed they were always tense, like they were expecting something to go wrong. Were they simply not confident in themselves? Honestly he could believe that. Even now Mink personally still found himself struggling to not become a hermit.

"So Mink. Why'd you decide to eat with us today?" the taller blond asked. Mink shrugged in answer.

"I'm not entirely sure myself. Perhaps I figured you two could use the company," he answered. Virus smiled softly up at him.

"It does get rather lonely by ourselves. No one bothers to come see us during our lunch breaks." Trip nodded before picking his pace up a bit. "Ah...it seems my sugar hound has already smelled our destination."

"Mmmm...I can already smell the sugar from here," he groaned. "Sweet, sweet saccharine, here I come." Virus laughed at the mild look of confusion on Mink's face.

"Don't mind Trip, once he smells sweets he's in his own little world until he gets them."

"I'm surprised you aren't chastising him for how much he eats," Mink admitted. Virus glanced over at the taller blond.

"Hmm...he's a grown man. I have no place telling him what he can or can't eat, or what he can and can't do." Trip skipped ahead a little, finding a nice spot on the patio of the cafe under a cute little umbrella. He waited, feet tapping nervously against the ground. The two elder males took their time, continuing their chatter until finally taking seats across from their younger companion.

"I didn't think old people moved that slow," Trip jabbed.

"And I didn't think young people could be so ignorant," Virus snapped back. Trip opened his mouth to remind Virus he wasn't actually that old but stopped to examine Virus's features.

He really was starting to show his age, it seemed...even with how strict his regiment had been concerning his health, he still couldn't stop the small, almost invisible laugh lines creeping up around his mouth. If Trip squinted he was almost positive he could see crow's feet underneath the other's eyes. Lately he had looked nothing short of dead tired. That small jab must have hit Virus harder than he realized. Immediately Trip dropped the subject in lieu of deciding what sugary treat he would indulge in today.

"Mink-san, would you like something to drink?" Virus asked. The burlier male shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

"Something not too sweet," he finally answered. Trip suddenly pulled his Coil up and began scrolling through what looked like a massive list.

"What are you doing?" Virus sighed.

"Mmnnn...Noiz just sent me a message. He found voice boxes for Hersha and Welter, and he wants to make sure we're okay with the voices he picked. He said for us to swing by the house whenever we get the chance," Trip answered. "He also said that tonight is your night for dishes, Virus, so don't stay out too late." Virus snorted and leaned back.

"The last time I was out past eleven was when we were still working for Toue. I'm getting too old for that shit anymore, honestly." This time Trip couldn't bite his tongue fast enough.

"Virus, you're not old. You're not even forty yet, so I don't want to hear it." Trip winced a little when he realized that meant he was just about to break thirty himself, but that was another matter. A younger woman walked over, a soft smile on her face and eyes bouncing between the three men. She looked like she was trying to decide which one to pounce on first.

"Hello, there. What can I get for you three gentlemen?" she purred. Virus caught the look in her eyes and instantly tensed up.

"Aahh...a mocha hazelnut macchiato for me," he said. Trip perked up and smiled.

"Two slices of strawberry cheesecake and a piece of German chocolate cake," he spat out. She flicked her gaze over to Mink and shifted hips. Her pupils dilated a bit, and the faintest hint of color rose to her face.

"Black coffee," he told her. She smiled and turned to leave with a gentle sway of her hips. Virus sighed and leaned his head on his hands.

"Mnnn...I hope they don't fuck it up again. Last time I got a chai tea latte with an extra shot of espresso with honey and soy milk. It was the most disgusting thing I've probably ever tasted in my life." Trip pouted and braced himself against the table.

"That was the day you were throwing up for almost five hours straight, wasn't it?" he asked.

"Mmhmm. I couldn't get the damn taste out of my mouth and every time I closed my mouth I could taste it again. I haven't been sick like that since the institution," he admitted calmly. He looked almost bored, really. "That was an experience I was hoping to never have to repeat."

"True. But it did get you free coffees for a whole month," Trip reminded him. Virus bobbed his head from side to side gently.

"Ahhh...you have a point, Trip." A low yawn escaped from Virus's mouth. "Hmm...I'm going to start taking naps during my lunch. Almost as soon as I get home I'm passed out until supper, and then almost as soon as I'm done eating I'm off to sleep again. It's rather annoying, when I want to spend time with people."

"Are you going to sleep at a decent hour?" Mink asked. Virus nodded, index finger drawing loose patterns on the table in front of him. "Hmm...you may be having a caffeine crash from the coffee. By the time you get home from work it's likely that the caffeine has worn off. Might I suggest drinking something else for lunch?"

"I guess that's not a bad idea. Perhaps I could start drinking tea again...I do so miss my Earl Grey, and my honey and milk chai..."

"I just thought you said that latte was disgusting?"

"That's the key word. Latte. Not to mention it was made with soy milk, and I hate the way that stuff tastes. And that espresso...just..." Virus shivered.

"High maintenance alert," Trip poked.

"Shut it, Trip, before I take your cake away from you."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Try me," Virus warned. Mink was about to step in, thinking the argument genuine until they began laughing.

"Ah, I know you'd take my cake away. So after work today...wanna head out? Just the two of us?" Trip asked.

"Yes. I need a little bit of time away from things. I think a date would be a great idea." The woman from before sauntered over, drinks and sweets balanced perfectly on a tray on her left hand.

"Here," she deadpanned, setting Virus's macchiato in front of him and nearly tipping Trip's sweets. A very soft and warm smile came to her face, and she handled Mink's coffee much gentler. "And here you go, cutie~." Trip made an open display of disgust at her sudden change in attitude to Mink. Virus was tempted to make a comment about Mink being their's but decided against it. He didn't want to say anything to upset the larger man.

"I would appreciate you not doing that," Mink grunted. She giggled, and Virus mock vomited onto the floor beside him.

"Oohh, modest. I like that." Mink arched an eyebrow.

"No. I just don't think my lovers here enjoy watching someone else try and flirt with me," he stated calmly.

Virus had to cover his mouth at the look of pure shock on the poor girl's face. Both his and Trip's shoulders shook with the effort of trying and failing miserably at not laughing.

"O...oh. My apologies then." Her face was a bright bloody red as she scurried off.

"That was rather amusing," Virus chimed.

"I think we all needed that," Trip agreed. He was quick to spear a piece of cake onto the end of his fork and pop it into his mouth.

When the three of them left, Trip could just barely make out the waitress talking to what he assumed was one of her friends and pointing at them. He felt his heart swell a little bit in his chest at the fact that Mink had called them both his lovers. It dropped when he remembered that so far ONLY Mink and Aoba had willingly called them lovers.

 

Later that night, when Koujaku had made dinner and was setting the table, Aoba decided to pop his head in.

"Ah. Koujaku. Do you need any help?" he asked. The hair dresser waved him off and continued setting the table.

"No, Aoba. I'm fine. Thank you, though." Aoba was about to duck out of the room before stopping. Koujaku had only set seven places. Two were missing. "Umm...Koujaku, you're not setting a place for Virus and Trip?"

"Mink said they were planning on staying out tonight. I assume they're eating out," he answered. This caused the younger to frown.

"But they said they were only going out for a walk..."

"That may be the case, but they were also supposed to be home an hour and a half ago. They're not here yet, they're not eating." Aoba's frown turned into a scowl, but he left nonetheless.

It wasn't just Koujaku who was a jerk to Virus and Trip, it was almost everyone. Until recently Noiz would ignore the two of them whenever they tried to talk to him, and even now he would still fidget around them. Ren had told Aoba countless times how uncomfortable he felt knowing the two of them were there all the time. Mizuki openly avoided them unless necessary. Koujaku would do everything in his power to annoy, piss off, and frustrate Virus and Trip. Really only he and Mink were remotely civil to them...and it hurt. He cared a lot about them, about all of them really, and he hated seeing them bicker and fight. The past was the past, it wasn't something meant to be dwelt on. They'd changed, that much was obvious. So why couldn't the others see that?

"I really hope those two are okay..." he whispered. A pair of strong arms wrapped around him from behind.

"Mulling over us, are we Aoba?" Another body pressed gently against his front.

"Something bothering you, Aoba-san?" Aoba smiled and pressed his lips gently to the bottom of Virus's jaw before turning to kiss Trip in the same spot.

"No, I'm fine. Did you two already eat?" he asked.

"Ah. I'm afraid not. I'm guessing Koujaku-san didn't set enough places?" Virus asked.

"No. He said you weren't home earlier, so he assumed you two had already eaten. I'm sorry..." Trip shrugged and pulled away.

"We were half expecting it honestly. So Virus and I stopped by a fast food place and got something to eat in case. Come on, Virus. I'm tired and need a shower. You can join me tonight."

"Thank you, Trip..."

"Wait! If you guys hold off until after I've eaten I'll come join you two," Aoba offered. Virus was quick to push him off.

"No, it's fine. Thank you, Aoba-san, but I believe Mink mentioned wanting to spend time with you tonight. We don't want to intrude. Why don't the three of us spend some time together tomorrow to make up for it, hmm?" Virus watched Aoba deflate and forced himself not to apologize and drag Aoba off for some quality time together.

"I understand..."

"We'll come see you before bed, alright?" Trip said.

"Yeah. Sure. See you two then." He pulled away from Trip's grasp and walked off. Trip snatched the bag he left on the floor and yawned.

"Let's go. He's obviously not happy to see us. Maybe he'll cheer up after dinner?" Virus sighed and tugged the younger blond along with him to their room.

"Maybe. I doubt it, though." The two were silent until they were actually in their room.

"...Do you think he's getting ready to do it?" Trip finally asked. His voice was low, almost too low. Virus shrugged and began stripping out of his clothes.

"It's a possibility." He thew himself down onto the mattress and sighed. His shoes hit the far wall beside the door, his shirt landing beside him on the floor. "I'm sure the others would be ecstatic if that were actually the case."

"Yeah...they would be. Everyone freaked when Noiz disappeared, yet I bet you if we did the same thing then everyone really would be happy we were gone. Not like with Noiz's disappearance." Trip hopped up calmly onto the bed and set the small bag between them. "Maybe we should disappear like Noiz?"

"No. That would upset Aoba-san too much," Virus mused. "We should apologize when we go to visit him. Why don't we spend the night in his bed with him?"

"We should. We've been ignoring him lately..." Trip reached over and grabbed a large container of fries, shoving four of them in his mouth at once. Virus took another container out and nibbled the end of a fry.

"Things were supposed to be better for us after we stopped working for Toue, Virus...what the hell has happened to us?" Trip asked. One of his legs came out to rest across Virus's thighs.

"We fell in love with a man who has six other boyfriends, is what happened," the elder answered. "They do enough between themselves...we aren't really needed. More like...we've overstayed our welcome."

"But if we leave, Aoba won't be happy. So we have to stay. Right?"

"Right." It was Virus's turn to lean against the other, his upper half laying against Trip. "Let's find some way to make it up to Aoba-san."

"You could always bake something for him," Trip suggested. The elder blond shrugged and continued nibbling on his fries.

"I don't want to eat right now. My stomach wouldn't be able to handle it. I'm going to go take a shower. Join me when you want to." Virus left his food on the bed and stripped the rest of the way before walking off. Trip frowned and stood up to follow Virus. He couldn't eat either. This was absolutely tearing him apart.

 

"Virus-san! Trip-san!" The two jerked awake suddenly at the feel of a very heavy body weighing the bed down. "Wake up! Mink-san said he wants to see everyone!"

"Go away, Clear...we're not getting out of bed today," Trip grumbled. He rolled over and tugged the covers up over his head.

"But Mink-san said I wasn't supposed to leave unless you two were with me! So come on, he said it's really important!" Clear begged. He pulled the covers away and began bouncing on the mattress. Virus sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Aahh...let us get dressed then..." He fumbled on the nightstand for his glasses and shoved them on his face before rolling out of bed and stumbling over to his closet. Trip struggled to haul himself out and did the same.

"What exactly does Mink want us for, anyway?" Trip asked. Today was their day off, so fuck getting dressed up; he grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie and threw them on.

"I'm not entirely sure. He just said he wanted to talk to all of us," Clear answered. "He seemed rather serious though."

"Huh. Wonder what he wants," Trip mused. He dragged his feet across the carpet to lay his head on Virus's shoulder sleepily. "I don't want to get up..."

"I'm sure it won't take long, Trip, and then we can go back to bed," Virus assured him. He patted the top of Trip's head and pulled his pants on the rest of the way.

"Fiiiiiine..." He detached himself from Virus's back and shuffled over past Clear into the living room. The others were already waiting, sprawled out across the couches and chairs. Trip plopped down on the floor beside the nearest couch and waited. Virus and Clear shuffled in a few minutes later and leaned against the nearest wall.

"Took you long enough," Koujaku muttered; Noiz swatted him across the back of the head and snapped at him to hold his tongue.

"Enough arguing," Mink cut in. "I wanted all of you here so I could talk to you."

"Ah? What's up, Mink?" Aoba asked, twirling a piece of his hair around his fingers.

"I've been planning a trip to my homeland," he answered. Mizuki perked up almost instantly.

"Oh? When are you leaving?" Mink felt his lips curl up ever so slightly.

"We're leaving in a month, and we'll be staying for three." Aoba sputtered and sat up straighter.

"W-what!? What do you mean we're leaving?"

"I want you all to come with me. I think it would be good for us. A chance to get away from stress. Some time for all of us to relax together." Koujaku shifted Aoba around in his lap and straightened up a bit.

"It would be a nice change of pace, too. I don't see any problems with it. Plus you gave us plenty of time to get things ready," he chimed.

"I like the idea!" Clear chirped. "We should all go!"

"I'm afraid Virus and I won't be able to go," Trip snapped. Virus looked over at him in confusion and straightened up off the wall.

"What are you talking about, Trip? I'm sure it won't be too hard for us to get the three months off. We've been working so diligently lately, I-"

"We won't be able to go, Virus. We're busy for the next three months," Trip hissed through grit teeth. Beside Virus Clear suddenly looked absolutely heartbroken.

"But Trip-san! Mink-san wants all of us to go with him! That includes you and Virus-san!" he whined. "Are you sure you won't be able to come with us...?"

"Trip is just blowing hot air, Clear-san. We'll be more than happy to come with, of course." Enchanting blue eyes locked with matching hues in question. Trip's answer was to stare back. "If it won't be a problem."

"When I said 'we're,' I did mean all of us," Mink grumbled. "Then it's settled. We'll leave in a month." General cheers of happiness echoed in the living room before dispersing into general chatter between everyone.

Mink and Virus were the only two to notice Trip's discomfort, or to pay him any mind when he left the room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> GUESS WHO FINALLY GOT HER ASS IN GEAR AND WROTE THIS!?  
> Also, don't hate Trip: The poor boy's gonna go through hell once they're in America.

"Hey, Koujaku." Aoba leaned over the kitchen table and stared at the back of the hair dresser's head. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes, Aoba?" he answered. Aoba hesitated, staring at his nails for a few seconds before finally speaking.

"Do you think you could give us all hair cuts before we leave? I know you just cut Mink's hair recently, but the rest of us need it," he explained. Koujaku's head bobbed from side to side in thought.

"Yeah, sure. I don't see a problem with it." He took two cups of tea and set one in front of Aoba.

"Hey, I-"

"FUCK!" Aoba's left knee jerked up and connected with the leg of the table, ripping a yell and a swear from him and a concerned look from Koujaku.  
Not for Trip, who was the one that screamed, but for Aoba's poor leg.

"Ouch, shit, that hurt...!"

"Here, come on, let's get you to lay down," Koujaku coaxed.

"No, it's fine. I'm more concerned with Trip right now," Aoba answered and hobbled off. His tea cup was forgotten in lieu of the blond that was screaming into a hand mirror in the living room with his hand on his head. Noiz and Mink were the next to skid in, followed by Virus, Clear, and Mizuki.

"Trip-san, are you alright?" Clear pushed past the mass to drop down in front of him. "You aren't hurt, are you?"

"No, Clear...I'm fine," he whined, tossing the mirror onto the couch beside him and leaning back. His hands came up to slap over his face before dragging down in frustration.

"Trip, what the hell is wrong?" Virus growled. The younger blond whined and pushed his bangs out of the way.

"They're shooooooowiiiiiiiiing..." Clear blinked and leaned in a little more. Right up against the edge of Trip's skull were small little spots of fiery red hair starting to peek through. "Whyyyyyyyyyy?"

"Trip, your hair is growing out, of course your roots will start showing after a while. Either stop complaining every time they do or let your hair go back to its natural color," Virus spat.

"Wait, Trip's not blond?" Noiz asked. Trip whined again and dropped his hand.

"No, I'm not, I'm a redhead. Virus, give me your hair~!"

"I rather like having my hair on the top of my head, thank you very much, so I don't think so," Virus deadpanned. He watched with mild amusement as Trip stuck his tongue out at Virus. "Keep that up and I won't help with your hair."

"I'll just have Kou-" Trip bit his tongue (quite literally) and looked down at his feet. 'Ignore the taste of blood in your mouth, you don't want to piss anyone else off.' He tried, really, he did; but after about three seconds he couldn't hold it anymore and leaned forward to spit it out beside Clear.

"TRIP GODDAMMIT!" Koujaku shrieked. "YOU COULDN'T SPIT THAT OUT SOMEWHERE ELSE!? NOW I HAVE TO FUCKING CLEAN IT UP!"

"No, you don't, I'll take care of it after I stop fucking bleeding," Trip growled in answer. The blood was going to be a bitch to get out of the carpet in front of the couch but oh fucking well. It'll keep Koujaku happy. "Shit, that taste is gonna be in my mouth for a while..."

"Ah! Would you like me to get you something to drink?" Clear asked. Worry flashed in his eyes for a few seconds.

"No, Clear...it's fine, thank you." Trip spat again and saw Virus out of the corner of his eyes walking closer. Very thin fingers pried his mouth open and bright blue eyes looked over Trip's tongue.

"Idiot. I told you you should have filed down your canines a long time ago. You split the side of your tongue open. Lovely. Don't talk, and for the love of god don't fucking bite your tongue again," Virus hissed. "We don't need you bleeding out from this."

"I'm fi-" Virus's fingers clamped down on the part of Trip's tongue that wasn't hurt.

"I said don't talk. And I meant it. If you absolutely need to talk you can use Welter or send my optics system a message. Understand?" Trip nodded once, slowly. "Good. I'm going to let your tongue go now. Will you behave?" Another gentle nod. Virus pulled his fingers away, completely uncaring about the fact that they were now coated in blood, and glared down at Trip. "Don't give me that look, you're the one that wouldn't listen to me." Trip's mouth opened again and Virus growled. Trip quietly shut his mouth and began staring at his feet again.

"Now that we know nothing is wrong, I think it's safe to assume we can all leave. Trip, I expect you to clean that blood up, got it?" Koujaku snapped. Trip waved his hand in response.

"He said he'll do it," Virus sighed. His attention turned back to the younger as he added, "If you talk and I hear it or about it, you'll regret it." Trip sighed and flopped back against the couch in defeat. "Let me go get Welter."

"No need, Virus. I'm right here." The black lion padded over, shoving the ones still in the door frame out of the way. His voice was low, a rumbly baritone that was more a purr than anything. "I'll keep an eye on the idiot for you."

"Thank you, Welter," Virus purred in answer. He reached down and scratched the top of the massive AllMate's head before strutting back off to his room. The rest of the house dispersed, and off Trip went to the kitchen to get what he needed to clean the blood up. Best not piss off Koujaku, oh no. He was Aoba's childhood friend, and was one of the two closest people to him. Pissing Koujaku off was not in his best interests. His tongue fucking hurt on top of it. He was definitely taking a nap after this.

"Hmm. You seem upset, Trip. Something bothering you?" Welter asked. Trip started to answer but caught himself, instead sending a message to Welter in answer.

'Agitated and stressed out. Not looking forward to the trip. Trying not to step on anyone's toes.' Welter nodded and watched with disinterest as Trip began scrubbing at the stain in the carpet.

"Understandable. I've noticed the way some of the others treat you and Virus. It's rather...upsetting, to say the least. Have you not said anything to Aoba about it?" he asked.

'No. It'll make things worse.' Feline eyes narrowed a bit, and his tail flicked in anger.

"How will you telling Aoba that the others are treating you rudely make things worse?" Trip paused for a second in his cleaning before answering.

'Because it would make the others upset with us. And that would upset Aoba in turn. So we don't say anything. Keep our mouths shut and pretend nothing's wrong. Works so far.' There was an audible growl followed by a low sigh.

"You two have fallen so far from your glory days. You know that, yes?" Trip's response to that caused Welter to fall silent in a mixture of confusion and amazement.

'Why? Because we're more concerned with keeping the peace, making our lover happy, and not causing strife for once in our life? Because I consider that a step up from our so-called 'glory days,' Welter.'

Satisfied that the carpet was clean Trip sighed and carried the cleaning supplies back into the kitchen. His tongue hurt like crazy, he needed to take a nap. He started to curl up on the couch before realizing that would be more than a little selfish, so he instead settled onto the floor, head on Welter's side and hand grasping long black hairs loosely. Welter's mane felt nice in his grip...

It wasn't long before he fell asleep despite the throbbing pain he felt in his tongue. It was probably a combination of Welter's unique scent and the almost undetectable whiff of Virus that clung to Welter's fur. They were probably the only comforting things left anymore, really. When he woke up he found himself staring at a pair of slit, electric blue eyes.

"Mmm...?"

"About time you woke up, Trip. I was beginning to worry that you'd fallen unconscious from blood loss. Virus wants to speak to you," Hersha said. His voice was a smooth, sweet, silky alto. For a brief second Trip thought Virus was talking to him. "Trip. Wake up."

"Haaahh...? Oh...Hersha...it's you..." Pain shot through his tongue and flared down his jaw to his neck as he spoke. 'Shit, I forgot about my tongue. Virus is gonna kill me now.' He hauled himself up off the floor and brushed himself off before shuffling to his and Virus's room. He knocked on the door and waited.

"Come in, Trip." Trip nudged the door open and slipped inside. Virus glanced up from his Coil screen before looking back down. "I'll forgive you for your slip-up with Hersha. However, I still need to talk to you." Trip's eyes narrowed a bit before he sent a message to Virus's optics system like he was told to.

'About what?' He walked over and flopped out onto his bed with a plate of cupcakes beside him.

"You seemed rather adamant against going to America with us. Is there a reason for that?" Trip doesn't answer, instead settling for carefully peeling the paper away from his cupcake and sucking the extra icing off the top. Virus waited patiently for an answer, and when he wasn't given one he turned to glare at Trip. "I asked you a question, Trip, and I expect an answer."

'...I don't really want to go.' The elder sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose gently.

"I gathered that, Trip. I'm asking you WHY you don't want to go," he snapped. Again, Trip neglected to answer. His focus was now almost entirely on the cupcakes in front of him. "Trip. Answer me."

'I don't want to.' Virus hissed and threw one of his pillows at Trip, icing on his pillow case be damned.

"If you won't talk to me then just leave. I don't have enough patience to deal with you right now." Trip's eyes narrowed over at Virus in aggravation.

'Your stupid pillow hit my cupcakes. There's icing smeared on the sheets now.'

"Good. Then it'll give you an excuse to leave, so you can take them to the laundry room to wash them." Trip clicked his tongue, visibly wincing at the pain the action caused, and crawled off of the bed. He ripped his sheets off and balled them up with a grunt.

'I'm sorry if there are certain things I don't want to talk about. You should know that better than anyone, right?' He stormed over to the bedroom door and ripped it open to come face to face with Clear.

"Ah! Trip-san! Is Virus-san in the room?" Trip nodded and hefted his sheets a little higher up on his shoulders. "Was I interrupting something?" The blond shook his head this time. "Alright. Let me get out of your way then." Clear stepped aside and let Trip by.

"Fuck you too, Trip. Have fun sleeping on the couch with Welter tonight!" Virus yelled. Trip stuck his middle finger up in response just as he moved out of the way of the door. Virus sighed, completely fed up with Trip's sudden childish outburst, and flopped back against his pillows. Clear hesitated before stepping in.

"Ah...Virus-san...I'm sorry to bother you."

"Hmm? Ah, no, you're not a bother to me, Clear-san. I'm just...a little upset with Trip, is all." He beckoned for the android to come closer by patting the bed beside him. "Please, come sit down."

"Thank you." Clear strutted over, hopped up onto the mattress beside Virus, and clasped his hands in his lap. "Ummm...if you don't mind me asking...how were you and Trip-san communicating, if he can't speak?"

"Hmm? Oh. Our eyes are connected. They're synced to each other like they're synced to our AllMates. All of our nerves connecting our eyes to our brain were replaced with wiring and such, so that we could keep in constant contact with each other in the event something happened." He sighed weakly and shook his head. "I've never had a problem with him before..."

"What do you mean?" Virus started to speak but looked up when the door was flung open and Trip glared at him.

'Out.' Virus snorted now and crossed his arms.

"Why should I leave?"

'Because I want you to, now shut up and leave.'

"I'm not lea-"

"I SAID LEAVE!" Trip yelled. He'd never raised his voice to Virus before, ever. He'd never had a reason to. His tongue hurt like hell though. "I DON'T want you in here right now, so LEAVE!" Virus rolled over off the bed, vaguely noting that Clear did the same, and walked over to him.

"I told you not to talk, dumbass." Trip's hand moved before his brain did and the next thing he knew he had it closed tightly around Virus's neck.

"I don't appreciate the name calling. I don't appreciate being told what to do. And I don't appreciate you marching around like you own me. I want to be alone, in my room, on my bed, with my sweets. So I want you to GET. THE FUCK. OUT." He turned and forcibly shoved Virus backwards out into the hallway and turned to look at Clear. He didn't have to say a word; Clear scurried past him, foot just barely clearing the door frame before he slammed it shut and locked it.

"Trip-san seemed very upset," Clear mumbled. He fidgeted a little bit before turning to look at Virus and freezing. "...Virus-san?"

Virus had only cried four times in his life, and only one that he would admit to. When Trip nearly died in the institute at fifteen from some of the scientists deciding it would be fun to see just how much of a threshold he had for pain. This? This was the fourth time. Tears were streaming down his face right now and onto his shirt. His glasses were thrown across the floor in front of Koujaku's door and the heels of his palms were dug into his eyes. He'd curled into a ball against the wall and sobbed quietly.

"Virus-san, are you alright?" Clear asked quietly. He settled down onto his knees in front of the blond gingerly. Virus's head snapped up and he blinked a few times.

"Oh...oh god Clear no, you weren't supposed to see me like this, fucking hell, go...go away, okay, just go away." He'd expected Clear to walk off after Trip threw them out, not stand there and see him. He reached over and snatched his glasses from the floor before jumping to his feet and hurrying off into the living room.

"Were you crying?" Clear asked.

"Just go away Clear!" He'd followed Virus off into the living room and saw him plop down onto the couch with his head in his hands. "You...you weren't supposed to see me like this..."

"Why not?" A weight settled down onto the couch beside him gingerly.

"I don't want..." He sniffled softly and wiped at his eyes. "It's...it's nothing. Nevermind."

"Please tell me?" Virus looked over at him and only saw a white blur. He carefully pushed his glasses back onto his face and blinked a few times. The look he saw on Clear's face made his heart melt. He was so innocent...and so sweet. He'd seen Clear scream when Koujaku tried to kill a spider and insisted that the spider be placed outside carefully. He'd seen Clear hide a little kitten from everyone for almost a month while he took care of it after finding it in an alley. He'd seen just how careful Clear was when he was washing and folding everyone's clothes.

For the first time in a very very long time Virus felt he could actually open up to another person.

"I don't...I don't like showing weakness to people." He wiped at his eyes under his glasses and swallowed. He felt a hand start to rub at his back softly and smiled softly. "They can use it against me. Hurt me. Abuse me. Take advantage of me and break me until there's nothing left of me anymore..." He swallowed again and blinked back more tears.

"Is that why you don't talk to the others much?" Clear took a stray strand of hair and pushed it back in its place. "Because you...you don't want them to use anything you say against you?" Virus snorted and shook his head.

"No. I don't really talk to anyone because they don't want to talk to me. The only ones that really talk to us are Aoba and Noiz..." he admitted. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Clear smile a little bit.

"I'll talk to you two. I just didn't know if you wanted me to. You and Trip-san always seemed so distant I just figured you didn't want anyone to bother you." He pushed more of Virus's hair behind his ear and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "You're a part of this family now. I love you just as much as I love the others." He smiled brightly at Virus. The blond's heart stopped.

Clear was a beautiful angel, and he would go to the grave swearing that. Without thinking he leaned forward and cupped Clear's face in his hands to kiss him tenderly. He could feel the faint heat rise from the cheeks under his palms. When he pulled away they were both smiling and just a little red in the face.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that-"

"No. It's fine. I liked it." Clear giggled softly. "Maybe...you could do it again?"

"Gladly." Their lips met again a second later; Clear's arms wrapped themselves around his neck and pulled him a little closer into the kiss. Their lips stayed locked together for a while before Virus found himself being pulled over Clear on the couch. At the realization he pulled away and made a slightly confused sound.

"Wha-"

"I love you. I told you. And...and I want to prove it to you." Virus laughed and kissed the top of Clear's nose.

"You don't have to. I believe you."

"But I want to." He pulled Virus down for another kiss and reached down to work his shirt off. Virus helped remove it and tossed it off to the side but stopped Clear when his fingers moved to the buttons of his own.

"This stays on," he said.

"But-"

"Clear. Please." Their eyes locked for the briefest of seconds before Clear finally nodded. He didn't want to make Virus upset. He didn't want to make him any MORE upset, he corrected. When Virus went to reach for his pants to take them off the front door swung open and the last person Virus expected (or wanted) to see burst in.

"Hey Clear, are you-" Mizuki blinked a few times in confusion. "...Ummmm..."

"Oh no! I'm so sorry, Mizuki-san! I completely forgot about your sketchbook, I'm so sorry!" Virus was quick to move from over Clear to let him get up. "I'm so so sorry, Mizuki-san, I'll go get it now!"

"No, that's not really nece-" Clear ran down the hall before Mizuki could finish his sentence, leaving him alone with Virus. "The hell were you doing to him?"

"I wasn't doing anything. He was trying to show how much he loved me." Virus smiled a little crookedly and shook his head.

"Don't touch him again," Mizuki warned and squared his shoulders. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly. In answer Virus sighed and set his hands on his hips.

"I'll kiss him if I damn well please, and I'll make love to him if I damn well please. Last I checked I'm nearly as old as Mink, and have no intention of letting you run my life. So please, refrain from making any childish or snarky comments towards me and let's continue to keep the peace in this house, hmm? For Aoba-san, at the very least." Before Mizuki can say anything back Clear runs into the living room with a fresh shirt on and a thick book under his clutched in his arms.

"I'm so sorry I forgot..." Mizuki immediately smiled at Clear and shook his head. He acted as though he hadn't been about to threaten Virus's life.

"It's fine, Clear. I know you didn't mean to. Come on, if we're gone too long I might miss my client," he said and ushered Clear over. The pair linked arms and walked out of the house, leaving Virus completely alone in a silent room with no one to interact with.

And honestly? Most days he prefered it this way.


	7. Chapter 7

The time leading up to their departure was...hectic, would be the word Trip would use to describe it. No one actually wanted Mink to leave early, and everyone fought him to stay longer, just another day or two or week, leave with us there. Of course he declined gently, very gently. He had to get the home ready, get supplies, make sure his truck still worked, etcetera. Clear and Noiz had been there at the airport with him to see him off, both of them peppering him with kisses for almost twenty five minutes beforehand and up until they had to separate for Mink to finally board the plane. They both knew they'd see him again soon, but it still created a bit of an ache. They weren't used to being away from one of their lovers for more than a day or two at a time.

The next week, arguably, was pure hell for Virus and Trip. Mink had been the main peacekeeper between the rest of the house and them, and with him gone there was no buffer, no way to keep their onslaught of anger at bay. They flung insult after insult at them, each word biting in just a little bit deeper into their heart and their skin. Why their words were affecting them neither knew, just that they stung. They secluded themselves in their bedroom, only ever coming out to use the bathroom and occasionally steal food from the kitchen when no one was around. Poor sweet innocent Clear tried his hardest to be sociable with them, asking them to come out with him on walks through the park nearby or maybe even go shopping with him. They always declined, of course. The less they showed their faces the better.

The day of their departure was likely the most frantic day for them. Everyone was checking their bags at the last minute, making sure their AllMates were prepped for travel (poor Welter had to have his AI chip transferred into a small house cat's body, because it would cost far too much to move Welter's normal body) and that nothing was missing. Trip had learned long ago to let Virus do all of their packing and take care of all of their last minute tasks, even the menial ones. The trip to the airport was full of vigor and excitement and happiness for everyone but them. For Virus and Trip it was full of foreboding and misery and fear. Fear that they wouldn't be allowed to come with them, fear that Koujaku and Mizuki and Ren would find some excuse to run them off with Mink gone now, and then tell him that they decided on their own not to stay.

But no. They boarded without a hitch, both chalking it up to Aoba's presence in being able to pacify their rage for now. Trip was fidgeting the whole flight, never really one to like heights or planes or anything of the such. The only thing that kept him from having a breakdown was Virus's thumb running softly across the back of his hand and Virus keeping him engaged in conversation.

"Would you like some sweets when we land?" he asked. Trip nodded curtly, obviously still on edge. "What would you like? I'll buy you any sweets you want."

"I want cake," Trip answered flatly.

"Alright. What kind of cake?"

"Red velvet. It's my favorite."

"I remember that. You were very upset when I threw it out the first time. Do you remember that?" Trip nodded again.

"Of course. It was the second month of us living together. I'd been really stressed. Made you buy it. When I didn't eat it as fast as I usually would you thought I'd wasted it and threw it out." Virus smiled softly at him.

"Do you remember what else happened?"

"I threw out all the bottles of your favorite brand of wine." He laughed a little bit at that. "Maybe I overreacted when I did that."

"Maybe? I threw out five-hundred yen worth of cake, and you threw out almost twenty-thousand in wine. To say I was pissed is an understatement." Trip scratched gently at the back of his head and chuckled nervously.

"I paid you back for it though. Remember Christmas that year?" Virus nodded.

"Of course. You bought me a replacement core for Hersha, as well as paid to have his operating system updated and an overhaul to his motor functions so he would run smoother. You basically paid for all of the necessary maintenance on him that year, and I thank you for that." Trip laughed softly at that.

"I ruined your wine collection. I would have felt terrible that year if I hadn't," he explained.

The rest of their flight continued like this, the two trading short banter and reminiscing over old times. It kept Trip sufficiently distracted until they landed, which surprised Virus greatly. Normally Trip would struggle to say a whole sentence normally, and yet he'd had a very serious conversation with Virus for almost two hours before finally yawning and trying to settle down to sleep. He needed a nap. Virus let him, of course.

When they finally made it out and into the terminal, they were back on edge again. Not out of worry from the others hating them, but simply out of anxiousness. They weren't in Midorijima anymore. Virus was more than a little worried, honestly. He was scared for Trip. Thankfully, though, Mink was waiting for them, and the second Trip saw him he was running over to hug him tight. It was uncharacteristic of him and threw everyone for a loop, Mink included. Virus, however, just felt himself actually smile for the first time in a long time.

"It seems he's coming more out of his shell," he muttered softly to himself, eyes trained on Trip squeezing Mink for at least ten seconds before finally pulling away and immediately beginning to speak to him as though he'd never had anything wrong with him. It was...it was refreshing. Very refreshing.

Then came the problem of having enough room in the truck fo everyone and their bags. Immediately Virus and Trip offered to ride in the bed with the bags, and Clear agreed to help keep them company. The temperatures were a bit colder than anticipated or even seasonal for that time of year, which caused Trip to pull out one of his jackets to hand to Virus. When he tried to protest Trip simply shot him a gentle glare, and he sighed in defeat before pulling the thick coat on. It was much too large for him, of course. It was Trip's jacket. But it was thick and it was warm and it was what he needed. Once everything was settled, the trio had taken their seats, and everyone else had buckled themselves in, they began the long drive out to Mink's cabin. It was quiet and refreshing. Frost decorated the few leaves that remained on the trees, the rest littering the ground in varying shades of gold and brown and orange. There weren't very many birds left, though the occasional murder of crows drifted by overhead. Altogether it was a refreshing sight.

"Are you okay, Virus?" Trip asked suddenly. It came from nowhere, and it took Virus a moment to register he was being spoken to. When he finally did he blinked a few times and looked up at him.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, I'm fine. Thank you, Trip." Despite his assurance he found himself immediately wrapped up in broad arms. His face turned ever so slightly red, and it wasn't from the cold.

"Trip, you don't need to do this," he argued. Trip didn't answer, just squeezed him a little tighter.

"I need to keep my little snake warm, don't I?" he asked quietly. Virus's face took on more red in response to that.

"Shut it..." he groused, burrying his face into Trip's side.

"Virus-san, are you cold? Your face is red," Clear asked. After a moment his face lit up, and he pulled the bright scarf from around his neck to hand over to Virus. "Here! You obviously need this more than I do." A bright blue eye peeked over the edge of Trip's shirt.

"Clear, thank you, but-" Trip moved before he could finish speaking and wrapped the thick material around Virus's neck and the lower part of his face.

"Hey, you look good in yellow," he teased. This prompted a violent swat to the shoulder from Virus.

"Ah? What's this?" Clear looked closer at something shiny buried in among the bags before reaching in to pull it out. He found it was a very ornate cane; the head was a black snake with bright blue eyes and fangs barred. The body was metal and carved into the pattern of snake scales.

"That's mine, I'd appreciate you not touching it," Virus snapped, leaning forward to snatch the cane from Clear's hand. Clear looked hurt at that and immediately curled himself more into a ball.

"I...I'm very sorry, I didn't know it was yours," he whispered. For a second Virus looked agitated, before realizing he had no place to snap at Clear and visibly relaxed.

"I'm sorry, Clear-san. I shouldn't have been angry, you didn't know. This cane is...very important to me," he said. "It was a gift from Trip for my birthday a few years back. It means a lot to me, and I don't go anywhere for travel without it." He sets the heavy metal cane in his lap and leans into Trip.

"Oh. I see. I'm sorry I touched it."

"There's no need to apologize, Clear," Virus said and waved him off. "You didn't know. I can't be angry with you, though I do ask that you don't touch it again without my permission."

"Of course, Virus-san!" Clear chimed happily. "Thank you for not being upset with me." He looked up above him to see that the sun was beginning to settle down closer towards the horizon. "It's starting to get late already. We'll probably be able to sleep tonight. Hopefully there's enough room in the cabin for us all. I wonder if someone will have to share Mink-san's bed with him?"

"More than likely it will be Aoba-san," Virus said. "I don't foresee him letting someone else in bed with him honestly." He sighed quietly, eyes cast down at his feet. He felt fingers running through his hair and didn't have to look to realize they were Trip's. It always seemed to calm him down when Trip would play with his hair. It calmed him down whenever anyone played with his hair, honestly. "Thank you, Trip..."

"You're welcome, Virus. You seem tense. I know it's not much, but maybe it'll help calm you down well enough," he said. Electric blue eyes slipped closed. Virus wasn't sure how much longer they would be driving, so he figured he might as well take a nap. It was short lived unfortunately; not ten minutes later he felt the truck rumble to a halt and Trip rub his shoulder to wake him up.

"Damn...I was hoping we could sleep longer," he muttered quietly. He yawned and stretched then, using Trip as a lean to make sure he didn't hurt himself. He rubbed softly at his eyes under his glasses and looked up to see what Mink's home looked like.

It was very beautiful, he had to admit. It looked sturdy and well-built. There were ivy plants growing on the outside, quite obviously allowed to grow there, and plenty of flowers along the outer wall and the edge of the porch. There was a swing hanging from the roof of the porch and two rocking chairs beside it. Virus almost felt like this could be home, really.

"Hey, Virus. You okay?" A pair of fingers snapped in front of his face to bring him back to reality. He blinked a few times before looking over and seeing Trip staring at him in concern.

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine, Trip." He smiled and stood up finally, wincing softly as he did, and let Trip help him out of the bed of the truck and onto the soft ground. The first bag pulled out wasn't a bag but a carrier, and curled up inside were two blobs of black. When Trip opened the door to the carrier a familiar black snake slithered out, followed by a small black ball of fur.

"I already don't like this," Welter complained. His voice had lost its baritone and was now just as high as Hersha's. The snake snickered when he heard this and began wrapping himself around Virus lovingly.

"You'll adjust to it, Welter. Besides, I think you look adorable like that," he said, crawling around Virus's shoulders like a scarf. A large pink blob fluttered by and settled itself down onto Mink's shoulder.

"I prefer you that size honestly," Lulukan deadpanned. "Your lion body rather...terrifies me, but not because of the size. Because I'm scared you'll plop down somewhere and not realize you're sitting on either Midori or Beni or myself, and then you'll break us."

"If that fat bastard ever sat on me I'd peck him until he got off of me," Beni yelled and settled onto Koujaku's shoulder. Lulukan looked over at him and raised his eyebrow.

"And then you'd be eaten and ground down to nothing but scrap metal because Welter thought you were food."

"I wouldn't eat Beni," Welter defended, letting Trip scoop him up into his arms. "I don't think asshole tastes good."

"No, but I'm sure your master thinks so," Beni retorted.

"Only Virus's," Trip said. Immediately he felt a hand connect with the back of his head.

"I don't think they want to know about our sex life, Trip," Virus sighed.

"Hey now, no bickering," Noiz said. "We're here for a vacation and to relax. Not fight each other the whole time. AllMates included. So let's shut up, get along with each other, and have fun while we're here."

"I agree with Noiz," Hersha hissed. "This is supposed to be a pleasant vacation, so why don't we all take the oppportunity to stop biting at each other's throats and enjoy the scenery? It's much more beautiful here than it is in Midorijima, I have to say."

"The snake's right, it's very peaceful here," Koujaku said. He had already loaded himself down with a few bags, one of which was Aoba's, and was waiting for Mink to grab the rest of his and unlock the door. "Hey, how cold does it get here?"

"Cold enough that we'll need to go shopping for new clothes for all of you," Mink answered calmly. "I promise you you have nothing that will be able to handle the winter here." He tossed a bag up onto his shoulder and kept three more clutched in one hand as he walked up onto the porch. He fumbled with the keys for a moment before finally managing to get the door unlocked and letting the others inside. Once he set his bags down he walked over to the fireplace and began to build a fire.

"The low is supposed to be forty tonight," Lulukan announced. "It's unseasonably chilly, so bundle up if you decide to go out, and bundle up with your blankets while you sleep."

"Ah...is it really that cold?" Aoba asked. He didn't have a single bag in his hands, of course. None of the others would let him carry anything.

"Yes, it is," Hersha said. "By the way, how many rooms are here in this cabin?"

"There's three bedrooms and two bathrooms," Mink answered. "Which means we'll need to sleep three to a room except one."

"Can I sleep in your bed with you, Mink?" Aoba asked.

"Of course you can. Noiz, you need to sleep with us too, that way you'll be able to stay warm. That means that Koujaku, Mizuki, and Clear will be sleeping in one of the other rooms, and Virus and Trip will be given their own," he said. Virus and Trip, of course, had no qualms with that. They didn't need to deal with anyone else arguing with them at night or screaming that they hate them or something. Virus wouldn't be able to handle that. Neither would Trip. Once the fire was lit Mink stood up and dusted himself off. "I'll show you all to your rooms so you can get settled in."

"Thank you, Mink!" Mizuki chimed, finally speaking up for the first time since they'd left Midorijima. "It's so nice here."

"I built it myself, I would hope so," he says and smiles. "Come on." He picks his bags back up and heads off into his room finally. Aoba and Noiz were right on his heels, of course. They were surprised when they stepped into their now shared room. It was large, and beautiful, and covered almost entirely in charms and dream catchers and other homemade things of Mink's.

"Wow, Mink. Your room...it's so gorgeous," Aoba commented, taking very slow and deliberate steps inside. His gaze was affixed to the various decorations lining the walls and desks.

"Thank you." He set his things down and huffed. "I need to show the others to their rooms. You two can make yourselves at home here in mine."

Mizuki found their room to be just as gorgeous, Koujaku openly admitting just how jealous he actually was of the decorations, and Clear staring intently at each and every one of them. He found them fascinating.

Virus and Trip, however, were pulled off to the side before being shown their room.

"Are you two going to be alright here?" Mink asked. "I know the others don't like you. If you'd like I could have Aoba and Noiz trade with you."

"Ah, no, Mink-san, we're fine. We wouldn't want to upset the others by taking Aoba's place in your bed with you," Virus told him. "We'll be alright in our room, thank you."  
"If you decide to change your mind let me know. I know they won't mind trading rooms with you." He turned and headed off back towards his room while Virus and Trip let themselves into theirs. It was just as gorgeously decorated as the others, and Virus swore he felt an aura of comfort and love come from every little charm.

"Hey, Virus?"

"Yes Trip?"

"Is it just me, or does this place seem...warm to you? And I don't...I don't mean warm as in temperature wise, I mean warm as in...as in loving, and kind?" Virus smiled and turned to look at his younger companion.

"No, Trip. It's not just you. I feel it too. It's...it's a very nice change in attitude from what I'm used to." After a moment he unwound Hersha from around his shoulders and set the massive AllMate down onto the floor. "For now, Trip, let's hurry to bed. I'm tired, and I'm aching." They didn't bother unpacking, simply settling for finding their pajamas and changing into them before crawling into bed and settling down for a much needed rest.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written/updated for DMMD Fanfiction Month on Tumblr (I need to put the rest of those stories here anyway, so I'll make them their own story here soon) for week 2 days 2 & 3, date night and stargazing. Hope you enjoy, and sorry for the delay~!

Roughly a month had passed already, and things were going far better than Virus had expected them to. Trip as well. There had been very minimal insults flung at them so far, and everyone had seemed (fairly) peaceful towards them. However, there was a small hiccup in their vacation.

"Shit." That never meant anything good coming from Virus. Trip looked up from his bed and closed his book.

"Virus? What's wrong?" he asked and straightened up. Virus tossed an empty pill bottle across the room into the far wall and growled. This definitely was not a good thing. "Oh no. Don't tell me?"

"Yes. I am. And it's going to take at least another month to get the fucking things refilled," he said, a small sigh escaping his lips after. He took a few moments to stare at his feet before shaking his head. "Perhaps Mink has some herbal replacement for them."

"Maybe. You should go ask him," Trip suggested. He pulled a small cupcake from his bedside table and began peeling the paper away. "It won't hurt."

"Yes...yes, I guess you're right," Virus sighed in agreement. "Trip, hand me my slippers, the wood in the hallways and the kitchen is extremely cold." Trip leaned over the edge of the bed and pulled up a pair of fuzzy cat house shoes. A gag gift from Aoba for his birthday the year before, but Virus had actually found he liked them. Virus promptly shuffled over to Trip's bed and pulled the slippers onto his feet. "I'm also going to get some coffee, would you like a cup?" he asked.

"Yeah. But could you put some hot chocolate mix in it? The kind with the marshmallows maybe?"

"Of course," Virus chuckled before leaning over and kissing Trip's cheek softly. "I'll be back in fifteen, twenty minutes tops."

"I'll still be here reading," Trip deadpanned as he began eating his cupcake. Virus patted his shoulder softly before hauling himself up off the bed and heading off into the living room. Ren and Koujaku were settled in front of the fire playing cards with Noiz.

"So does this card mean anything?" Ren asked and pulled one out from his hand to show Noiz.

"Ren, you're not supposed to show me the cards you have," Noiz chuckled. "The whole point of poker is to try and trick the other people into thinking they have a better hand than you do." Virus was almost tempted to go join them before realizing doing so would likely run both Koujaku and Ren off. Instead he turned to head off into the kitchen. Aoba and Mizuki were sitting at the table enjoying a few mugs of hot chocolate together.

"Ah. Aoba-san, have you seen Mink-san?" Virus asked, purposefully avoiding looking at Mizuki so as to avoid causing a scene.

"Yeah, I think he's out back chopping more wood for the house," he answered and took a sip of hot chocolate. "Why?"

"No reason, I simply need to talk to him is all. Thank you, Aoba-san." Virus bowed for a brief second before turning and heading back to his room.

"Eh? Couldn't find him?"

"No, he's outside, and I don't want to walk outside in my house shoes," he laughed. "I'll get our coffee on the way back inside, I promise."

"Oh. I'd honestly forgotten I'd asked you for coffee," Trip admitted and finished off the cupcake in his hand.

"Then do you want coffee or not?" Virus asked as he pulled his shoes on.

"Yeah. Yeah, I want coffee." Trip thought for a few seconds before pulling himself out of bed. "You need to lay down, though. The cold isn't good for you and you know it."

"I'm fine Trip, really." He found a shadow in front of him and looked up to see Trip looming over him with a slightly menacing look on his face. "...Though if you insist," he sighed and kicked his shoes back off. The frightening look turned into a soft smile and Trip reached up to ruffle Virus's hair gently.

"Stay here. I'll come back with your coffee and hopefully some new meds, or at the very least a possibility of such." He pulled his own shoes on and took a bite of a cupcake before walking outside.

"So Noiz, would two kings beat whatever you have?" Koujaku asked as he came out. An exasperated sigh from Noiz came in answer, followed by the sound of cards slapping against wood.

"Koujaku. You aren't supposed to ask questions like that, you're supposed to keep what you have a secret!" he whined. Trip laughed at this and walked over to pat Noiz's shoulder softly.

"You've got your work cut out, but if you'd like you can join Virus and I for a game of poker later," he offered. When Noiz sat there for more than three seconds considering it he laughed and patted his shoulder again. "We'll be in our room whenever you want to come." He scurried off, almost one-hundred percent positive he could feel Koujaku and Ren burning holes into his back, and hurried outside. When he didn't find Mink out front he hurried around back behind the house and found shoving a few pieces of split wood off to the side.

"What are you doing out here? I would have thought you'd have been in the house keeping an eye on Virus," Mink asked when Trip rounded the corner. In answer the blond chuckled and shook his head.

"I actually kind of was. Virus is out of medicine." Mink stopped mid-movement and looked up at Trip with a raised eyebrow.

"He is? Which pills?"

"I only saw one bottle but there's only a few left in the other one. He said it would take at least a month to get the prescription transferred. You know how the doctors are on Midorijima, they're lazy bastards. Virus has to pester them for at least a week before he needs a refill before they'll actually do it," Trip said and walked over to him.

"I'm assuming you came to ask me for a replacement?" Mink asked, propping himself up on the handle of his axe while the head rest against the stump he stood in front of.

"Yeah. If it's possible. If not, well...I can help with at least one. Not so much the other." Mink stood there in thought for a long while before setting the axe in a holder beside the stump.

"I think I have something that may help. Would you be willing to help me collect some herbs?" he asked. Trip snorted and crossed his arms.

"Of course. It's Virus, I'm going to help," he said. He watched Mink smile and shake his head, and a small part of Trip brightened. It felt nice that someone else actually cared for him and Virus. "Are we going now?"

"We'll need to," Mink answered and straightened up. "The cold will kill them if we don't. We'll also need to use them sparingly, as most of the herbs and plants needed are sparse to begin with." Trip felt himself frown and shook his head slowly.

"Virus isn't going to make it here for very long at this rate," he muttered. "And if he does we'll be lucky to get him out of his room."

"I'm well aware of that," Mink sighed. "Wait here. I'm going to get my coat. Do you want me to get yours?" Trip blinked and looked down at his arms.

"Oh. Shit. I did forget to put my jacket on. Please, if you don't mind?"

"I asked for a reason, Trip. I'll be back in a few moments." Trip watched him walk off and let out a soft sigh after he left. He then ran his fingers through his hair and pulled softly. He was stressed, to say the least. This was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, but Trip had nearly managed to run himself ragged helping take care of Virus and the rest of the house. He couldn't even help clean during the day, for fuck's sake, because he knew it would upset everyone else in the house that he was touching things. He was scared he was going to start losing his hair soon because of this shit. He was so absorbed in his thoughts, in fact, that he didn't even notice Mink standing in front of him until the other cleared his throat and held Trip's jacket out to him.

"Here." Trip blinked a few times before shaking his head softly.

"Oh. Thank you," he muttered quietly before pulling it on. He jerked a bit when he felt a pair of hands on his face and felt his jaw pulled gently to force him to look up at Mink.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked. Trip's eyes immediately darted off to the side in embarrassment.

"Nothing."

"You're thinking about something that's bothering you. What is it?" Trip stayed quiet in thought for a moment before sighing.

"We can talk about it later. Right now we need to go get the things for Virus's medicine," he argued while pulling away. Mink sighed and nodded.

"I'll hold you to that," he warned before gently pulling Trip along out towards the woods. "How bad is it?"

"Not that bad yet, but if he stays off his meds it'll turn serious. Hopefully this will be enough to prevent that." He pulled the collar of his jacket up a little higher to cover his face from the biting wind. It had only gotten colder since the group had come down to America, which wasn't helping Virus's condition of course.

"Hopefully." Mink reached up to scratch at his hair softly. "By the way, there shouldn't be any of it still around but there's poison ivy in this part of the woods," he warned suddenly. Trip frowned a bit before looking over at Mink.

"Poison...ivy? You're kidding me, right? Please don't tell me you're serious," he said and looked over.

"Why? Allergic to it?"

"No, I got pushed into it way too much as a kid. I don't even itch anymore. I don't know about Virus, for all I know he's fatally allergic to the shit. But I'm also worried about Aoba and the others." Mink chuckled and patted Trip's shoulder gently.

"Don't worry. I'm almost positive there's none left. I just mentioned it as a precaution, and even if there is I have plenty of remedies to help with the itching and the rash, and to help prevent it from spreading," he says. He smiles a bit. "Don't worry. I'm sure we won't have to worry about that."

Not even half an hour later the two of them were walking back towards the cabin, arms loaded down with various plants, and calmly chatting between the two of them. Trip actually felt calm around Mink, he'd discovered. He felt like he could actually be himself around Mink. Without warning Mink stopped and looked up at the sky.

"Is it tonight...?" Trip frowned and looked over at Mink in curiosity.

"What's wrong, Mink? A storm coming or something?" Mink shook his head and smiled a little bit. He hefted the plants in his arms around and continued towards the cabin.

"No. There's something I wanted to see tonight with all of you," he explained. "Something I'm sure you'll like. And likely the others, as well." The door suddenly swung open, and Clear ran down to them as quickly as he could.

"Mink-san, Mink-san! Virus-san fell!" Trip's eyes widened in shock. His arms dropped from in front of him and spilled the plants all over the ground. He then shoved past Clear to run into the house; Virus was curled up in the middle of the living room with tears pricking the corners of his eyes.

"Virus, what happened?" Trip asked as he hurried over to him. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I...I'm fine," he whispered in answer. "Just...just help me back into our room." Trip hooked an arm underneath his and began pulling him up to his feet.

"You tried to walk to the kitchen didn't you?"

"That's besides the point," Virus snapped back. Trip sighed softly and scooped the other blond up bridal style. "Trip, what are you-"

"Taking you back to our room, idiot," he said and immediately walked off towards their room. He tucked Virus into bed and sighed softly. He could tell how much Virus was hurting, it was painfully obvious considering he'd fallen. And since the idiot was too stubborn to use his cane because he thought it would cause even more problems Trip knew that tumbles like these were going to be a common occurrence. Trip watched Virus tear up again and wipe at his eyes softly. "Don't worry. Mink and I have the things to make your medicine, we'll fix this soon enough."

"Thank you, Trip," Virus sighed, turning his head off to the side in mild annoyance. He felt weak, as usual. Helpless. Vulnerable. Something he hadn't felt in years. He HATED it.

"I'll even bring you some tea made just the way you like it," Trip promised before pulling away from the bed and walking back off into the kitchen again.

"Everything will be ready in a few hours. Plenty of time before tonight," Mink told him. Already he was cutting parts of plants off and mixing them with other oils kept around the kitchen. "The natural remedies may not exactly be as effective as man-made medicines, but it should be sufficient enough that he can function properly."

"I hope so. What do you have planned for tonight anyway?"

"It's a surprise." Mink smiled crookedly at him. "Trust me. You'll enjoy it."

 

Night had fallen with anxious whispers passing around the house. No one knew exactly what Mink was planning, but obviously it was something very romantic, knowing him. Everyone was excited for whatever was going to happen. When Mink told everyone to gra blankets and pillows they were expecting something along the lines of a fort in the living room or something. Not for him to drag them outside and down a path through the woods to the edge of a cliff. No one complained, they all enjoyed the little trek together, but they were still curious.

"So what are you planning Mink?" Mizuki asked finally. The blankets were all spread out along the grass and the pillows were lined up all in a row. Everyone was laid all out along them and drinking hot chocolate.

Well...everyone except Virus and Trip. The two of them were off to the side and staying far away from everyone else. As usual. Virus's cane was propped in his lap; Trip had insisted he use it on the walk there.

"Tonight it something very special," Mink answered. Virus's head was trained towards the skies above them.

"How much longer?" he asked. Mink checked his coil.

"About fifteen minutes, give or take. We're in the best location for it," he replied. "The skies are extremely clear tonight, as well."

"Yeah, they are. It's going to be beautiful," Virus agreed.

"What are you two talking about!?" Mizuki asked.

"The Leonid meteor shower. It's supposed to begin tonight," Virus said. Every head but Mink's turned to look at him.

"How do you know that?"

"I used to study star charts back in the institute. It was one of the best ways I could pass the time when I was locked away," Virus said. "Studying the stars, learning music and dance...just studying in general was really all I had. Part of the reason I'm stuck wearing glasses." Clear frowned and came closer to sit beside them.

"What do you mean, Virus-san? Locked away?" He watched Virus visibly wince.

"I'd rather not talk about it," he said after a few moments of thought. "It's...it's too painful." Clear made a soft sound of apology before smiling and hugging him tight.

"Then that's okay! You don't have to tell us about your past, Virus-san. You can tell us when you're ready!" he chimed. Virus laughed weakly and patted Clear's head softly.

"Thank you for the sentiment, Clear-san, but I don't think I'll ever tell my story to anyone else. No one would care enough to listen honestly." Clear jerked away from him and frowned.

"Why do you think that? I would gladly listen to you! I enjoy talking to you, Virus-san. You're really sweet." The blond scoffed and shook his head softly in disbelief. He felt so bad for Clear right now. Such a sweet innocent soul who was too oblivious to understand that they were the most hated people that their little family knew. "I want to hear it!"

"Perhaps some other time, Clear-san," Virus said. "Right now we should watch the stars. The shower is starting soon." He looked back up at the stars and leaned softly against Trip's shoulder. His thin fingers laced with Trip's thicker ones gently. Instead of moving away Clear scooted closer to him, providing even more warmth for the smaller male.

"What do you mean, show-ooooohhhhh..." Aoba saw the first few meteorites pass by and gasped in awe. It was beautiful. It was one thing to see a meteor shower through a screen from halfway across the world, but it was another to see the event in person. The colors were so much more vibrant, so much brighter. He leaned back against the pillows to avoid straining his neck, and wordlessly the others followed. The meteorites continued to dance across the sky and painting the dark color with vibrant streaks of red and white. All chatter ceased; no one wanted to ruin such a perfect scene before them. When the shower began picking up Clear made a small sound in the back of his throat.

"So beautiful..."

"Yes, it is," Virus whispered in agreement. He'd never seen a meteor shower in person either. In fact Mink was the only one who had. No wonder he'd insisted on them coming out here tonight. They were glad for it, actually. It was a perfect little date night, honestly. Quite, peaceful, romantic...even if Virus and Trip still insisted that they stay away from the others.

Once the shower had stopped and everyone had taken a few moments Mizuki suddenly sat up.

"Let's stay out here for the night," he suggested. "It's pretty. Is it dangerous?"

"Not this far out in the open," Mink said. "And even if something happens, I'll wake up soon enough to protect us." After a few moment's thought he smiles a bit. "I think that's a good idea, Mizuki."

"Yay! Sleepover!" Clear squealed. Trip laughed and leaned over to ruffle his hair.

"Not exactly a sleepover if we're outside, Clear. More like camping," he explained. "But I enjoy your enthusiasm."

"Then it's settled," Noiz said. "We're sleeping out here. Now everyone shut up and lay down, I'm tired and I want to cuddle people." Mink chuckled and kissed Noiz's head before dropping down to wrap his arms around Noiz's chest. The others piled around them, and eventually every hand was holding a different hand. Clear and Trip were cuddled around Virus keeping him warm.

"Goodnight everyone," Noiz called.

"Goodnight," came a unified reply. Silence passed between them all, and it wasn't long before they had all drifted off into a very peaceful sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HEY GUESS WHAT?????  
> I'M BACK BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!  
> Sorry for the disappearance, the WiFi kinda stopped working on us. Again. >.> But I should be able to get a steady upload schedule now~! Don't worry, I haven't abandoned these. I plan to finish them.

The next morning, after everyone had returned to the cabin and there were fresh mugs of coffee sitting around the table, the conversation was kept quiet, no one really wanting to bring back the excitement of normal life. They were still reveling in the peacefulness the woods brought, the quiet chirping of the birds early in the morning accompanied by the soft footfalls of woodland creatures waking up and going about their morning. Mink realized that he'd probably felt the calmest he'd felt in years out there, surrounded by countless warm bodies all snuggled to him in varying degrees of comfort; and sitting in the kitchen, listening to each of them whisper to each other, reminded him of home. Not the place where he grew up, no; those memories were few and fuzzy. It reminded him of the FEELING of home.

Around lunchtime he decided to start a small fire. The cold was beginning to settle in, and Mink was none too fond of frigid temperatures. And, as he'd discovered, neither was Virus. Whether it was the pain from his joints (Mink assumed it was his joints anyway; that's about the only thing Mink could think of) or simply seasonal depression, Virus was always cranky and snippy when he was cold. Keep him warm, though, and he made a pleasant conversationalist and a good opponent at chess. And no sooner had he started the fire than he found Virus was forcibly shoved in front of it with a mug of hot chocolate and a nice thick book. It was small, barely longer than Virus's hand and only just as wide, but it was worn, and held together in various places with tape and glue. It was obviously important to Virus.

“What book are you reading?” Mink finally asked after a long spell of silence. Virus didn't answer for a few moments, leading Mink to believe he was simply being ignored, before Virus turned the page and looked up at him.

“ _The Divine Comedy_ ,” he answered.. “By Dante Alighieri. A good book, if a tad morbid and thought-provoking.” He placed one finger between the pages and gently held the book shut with two others so he could give his full attention to Mink. “Have you heard of it?”

“I have, yes. It was one of the books that Toue passed around to the prisoners. He meant for us to keep our minds sharp; a way to test our abilities to resisting Scrap. He figured the more intelligent, the harder it was. I don't personally believe that's the case, but...it was what he decided. I never picked the book up myself. I didn't want to give in and allow Toue to think he'd won. But I'd intended to read it eventually. Though I must say, for your level of neatness, the book looks rather shoddy. Sentimental value, I suppose?” Virus smiled softly and nodded in answer.

“This was the first book I ever finished on my own. Shocking, I know, considering I read this when I was only ten. I had nightmares for a bit afterwards, but they didn't last long. Back then I only read it for the action and such, but now that I'm older I enjoy the finer points of it. Though I must say, reading Middle English is a difficult task if your native tongue is so far from it that you can't even pronounce certain letters,” he chuckled. “I tried to read it to Trip, but...I've discovered he doesn't much care for this style of book. He prefers whimsical fantasies, like _Alice in Wonderland_. Though I have caught him taking a few glances at my copy of _Gone with the Wind_. I've been tempted to let him borrow it, but he has yet to ask, so I have yet to offer.”

“So you grew up learning Japanese?” Mink questioned. He was answered with a curt nod.

“Ah...yes and no,” he said. “I struggled learning English, so my parents focused more on teaching me Japanese. When Toue took me to the institute I was fluent enough in Japanese to at least hold a coherent conversation with those I might run into on the streets, so he focused most of my teachings on becoming competent in English. After that he moved me onto complex mathematics, and after that, well...the rest, as they say, is history.” He shrugged a bit, obviously not too concerned with his past. It had been years, after all, why should he still let it effect him?

“And Trip?”

“Ah, he was the brute of the institute until he met me. Then he calmed down, and I began to teach him the things I'd learned. As it turns out he's absolutely brilliant with numbers, and he can write such beautiful poetry. He also has a nasty right hook, but that's to be expected of him. And there's his soft spot for animals, of all things. He had a few paintings back in our apartment when we worked for Toue that he made of birds chirping in the trees...they were so gorgeous I would have thought the likes of Picasso or Rembrandt had painted them. But no; they were his. I watched him sit in our kitchen, staring out the windows for hours on end with a few paintbrushes and paints and cups of water scattered about. I wish we'd have kept them...” Virus looked quite upset at this thought; they had meant a lot to Trip, and when Toue had died they'd suddenly been stripped of their home. They were only allowed to grab Hersha and Welter and a few clothes, nothing else. After a moment Mink leaned over and tapped Virus's nose softly, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Perhaps I could buy some supplies and let Trip paint the wildlife out here. Even in winter this area is gorgeous, especially once the snow falls.” Virus stared with slightly glassy eyes before smiling.

“I'm sure he'd enjoy that a lot. He misses painting. I would have bought him some new things but I'm afraid we've been so busy that I haven't really bothered to think on it too much. But Trip is very particular, he'll only paint with certain brands of things. Anything else and it won't be good enough, you see. I want it to be a surprise though...but I remember the things he used. Perhaps we could take a shopping trip into town, just the two of us, and we could go looking?”

“I don't see why not,” Mink mumbled, coming over to settle beside Virus and hold him. A spindly finger is still caught between the aged pages. “I think it would be nice. An early Christmas present then.”

“...I'd forgotten Christmas was getting so close,” Virus whispered. “I...I know we won't get anything this year, except maybe from Clear and Aoba, but...it still hurts. Why does it bother me so much? Things like that...they were trivial to me for years. I never thought twice about it, but now...”

“Because you've experienced compassion, and love, and understanding. You know how humans can be, and you want more of it. You're no longer bound by Toue's cold hand, or the frigid fingers of your past. You're new people, experiencing the warmth of the world firsthand, and yet you still feel the coldness from those around you. It's...understandable.” Mink began running his broad hands through Virus's hair, enjoying how soft it felt. It reminded him of down feathers. Like the ones on Beni, or Lulakan.

“...Do you think they'll ever warm up to us?” Virus asked, so soft Mink had to strain to hear it and still take a moment or two to process what was asked. “We aren't like we were before, why...why can't the others understand that?”

“Because people resent change, Virus. And when people are set in their ways they don't change them very easily. But if given enough time, and enough gentle coaxing, I'm sure their opinions would change.” Silence passed between them both, Virus eventually opening his book again and returning to his readings. Mink felt his eyes slip closed, and found himself drifting off.

 

It was short lived, and his nap was interrupted not fifteen minutes later.

“I'm hungry.”

“You're always hungry, brat.”

“Okay? That doesn't change the fact that I'm hungry.”

“I don't know what we could make...”

“Let's ask Mink-san! I'm sure he would love to make lunch for us!”

“That's actually a good idea...I don't feel comfortable cooking anything here. We might catch the cabin on fire.”

“I don't think we would catch the cabin on fire, Aoba. With all of us here, one of us would likely be able to put it out.”

“Mink-san! Mink-san, would you make lunch for us~!” Mink sighed softly, casting a glance down at Virus to find him dozed off as well.

“I'll keep him company,” Trip said from his other side. “He needs to sleep. If we're careful, we can-”

“Just shut up and sit down, Trip,” Virus muttered, eyes opening and refocusing almost instantly. “I'm comfortable and would like to continue my nap.”

“Whoops. Too late,” Trip laughed as Mink stood up. Virus kept himself upright until Trip settled down in his place, and then Virus settled down against his companion to return to sleep. Mink turned and walked into the kitchen to find the others already seated at the table.

“Hmph. I love how you're expecting me to make you all food when you're all grown-ass men,” he chuckled. There were varying reactions, but the consensus was an adorable pout. “You're all lucky I love you. You know that, right?”

“Thank you, Mink~!” Aoba leaned up (which eventually turned into him standing up when Mink didn't bend over) and kissed his cheek softly. “So what are you making us?”

“Hmm...anything in particular you want?” he asked the group.

“Ah...I've kind of been missing Midorijima as of late,” Koujaku said. “Maybe you could make some home food?”

“Not entirely sure what I could make with the ingredients I have, but I suppose a trip into town was necessary soon anyway. I need to restock on a few things for when it snows...” Mink said absently.

“So I'm guessing lunch is on hold?” Noiz deadpanned. Mink nodded, and Noiz quickly pulled his coil out.

“Then if you're going into town, why don't you just pick up some food from the local Chinese place? I know it isn't authentic or anything, but it may be close enough to tide us over until you get back,” he suggested.

“I guess that would be good enough,” Koujaku grumbled. His arms folded in front of his chest and he leaned back against the chair with a huff.

“Wait, wasn't there also a Japanese restaurant?” Aoba asked. “I thought I saw one when we were passing through the last time we went there.”

“Actually I think you may be right,” Mizuki said. “I vaguely remember it. There were bright lights and the smell coming from it actually made my stomach growl.”

“Oh yeah, there is one,” Noiz chimed. “It's on the other side of town, and it's a bit of an extra journey I suppose, but I think it'll be enough. Again, won't be authentic probably, but it'll be something at least.”

“Probably, yeah,” Mink said. “So do you want me to swing by there then?”

“If you don't mind, if not I can have them deliver it,” Noiz muttered. “Damn, the service is spotty as hell out here...I can barely even get a GPS signal. May need to find some signal boosters...”

“Noiz, this is a vacation. A VACATION. Spend some time with the rest of us instead of buried in that damn coil of yours. We're lucky you haven't spent most of your time playing those stupid games,” Koujaku huffed. Noiz looked up at him from the corner of his eye and snorted.

“You only call them stupid because you don't understand how to play them,” Noiz answered. He saw Koujaku's face contort a little bit, but then watched it fade and turn into a defeated scowl.

“...Yeah. Guess so.” Koujaku leaned over until his forehead was resting on Noiz's shoulder. “...Sorry about that.”

“Don't worry about it. I started it. And you're right, it's a vacation. I'm supposed to be spending it out here, with you guys. Not doing things I shouldn't concern myself with,” Noiz said and turned his coil off before tossing it up onto the table. “Want me to go with you, Mink?”

“Actually I figured I could take Virus with me instead,” he answered. “He hasn't really been able to get out much. I figured at least getting him into town might do him some good.”

“If you're gonna take one then take both,” Koujaku growled and straightened up. “No sense separating them.”

“Trip's staying here, because he doesn't like going into town,” Mink argued. He didn't understand why, but he figured the answer would present itself eventually. “If it eases your conscience he likely won't be leaving the living room. I'm leaving him in charge of the fire for the rest of you.”

“Let's hope he doesn't get distracted and let it go out then.” Mizuki stood up and stretched, his lower back popping a few times and a groan echoing in the kitchen. “In the meantime I'm gonna head outside. Koujaku, you up for a sparring match?”

“Sure, why not. It'll keep us warm, that's for sure.” Koujaku stood up as well, a few more pops than Mizuki making even Mink worry something broke, before the two of them headed outside. Clear followed after them almost immediately, cheering the both of them on, and Aoba scurried off behind him. Ren stayed at the table, staring at his hands in what appeared to be confusion and fascination. His eyes seemed a bit darker than Mink remembered them, but he chalked that up to the lighting.

“Not going outside with the others?” Mink asked. Ren slowly shook his head from side to side. “Then stay in here. You're welcome to lay in my bed, if you wish. Virus, would you still like to head into town?” Mink heard Virus shuffling around in the living room and the sound of a metal cane being pulled from it's place by the door.

“Yes, I'm ready.” The two of them stepped outside to see Mizuki and Koujaku shirtless and already fighting, the both of them carrying wild looks in their eyes and swinging so fast it was a wonder they could dodge each other. Then again, years of practice had likely given them both enough experience to read the other's movements before they made them. When the pair pulled away from the wood cabin Koujaku had managed to pin Mizuki to the ground by his throat and was holding him in a death grip.

Inside, though, Trip found himself in a strange predicament. Shortly after Mink had left, and the cabin had gone quiet, he heard the sound of wood scraping on linoleum, and a few moments later found Ren settling down onto the floor beside him. Normally Ren avoided Trip and Virus; he wasn't hostile, but he wasn't friendly either. This was the closest he'd come to either of them since they'd returned him to Aoba.

“What brought this on?” Trip asked, fully expecting an immediate answer. Instead he heard silence, and had to turn his head ever so slightly to see what gesture Ren made; it was a shrug. His eyes were fixated on the fire in front of him, his fingers softly running along the thick material of his sweater. It was one Mink had handmade, and fit him snugly. “Giving me the silent treatment, are we?” Again, he was answered with a shrug. But it wasn't a full-body shrug like Ren gave. It was a softer shrug, like he wasn't all there. Like there were a million things running through his mind and distracting him from everything around him.

After a moment Ren's fingers began running along the soft material of the thick blanket covering the couch, and his eyes seemed to widen for a moment in shock. “Hey, Ren...did you eat some bad mushrooms or something?” Trip watched Ren blink slowly, as though contemplating his answer, before his head shook. “You sure? You're acting weird.” Ren's eyes narrowed for a moment in thought before he, again, shook his head in denial. “You not gonna talk to me? That it? Thought you weren't doing that to me.” Ren frowned, which seemed to be a struggle to him, and turned to look at Trip. His eyes were dark, a deep golden Trip wasn't used to seeing, and were scrutinizing Trip as if he were a fine piece of art to be put on display. Trip figured the fire must be making the colors look off or something. “Hey, you're kind of starting to creep me out a bit, Ren.” The frown disappeared and instead turned into an adorable pout, which was definitely not something Ren did for anyone but Aoba, before he shocked Trip into nearly shooting up off the floor.

Ren crawled over to him, stared at him for a long while, then looked between his thigh and his face a few times before deciding to use his thigh as a pillow of all things. “...Ren...?” Still no answer. But Ren didn't seem like he was leaving anytime soon, so Trip began to tentatively pet him. And when he did, every muscle in Ren's body seemed to relax at once, and Trip heard a very quiet and gentle sigh from his nose.

This was definitely at the top of Trip's “Strangest Things” list.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm SOOOOOOOOOO fucking sorry that this took so long to get up, the internet went out at the house AGAIN and I'm only just now getting a chance to put this up. Plus I uhhhh...I also have trouble writing smut. DX

Trip woke to the sounds of Mink shuffling around near him and a quiet conversation between him and Virus, of all people.

“Good thing I built the fire up before we left. Seems like he fell asleep,” Mink mumbled. A fresh log thumped into the fireplace a moment later. “He must have gotten a little too comfortable.”

“Mmm, he has trouble sleeping at night sometimes, so he tends to take naps during the day wherever he can find the time,” Virus explained. A hand began softly running though Trip's hair, and he made a quiet sound of content before finally opening his eyes. “Enjoy your nap, Trip?”

“Hnn...yeah,” he answered, yawning softly and wiping at his eyes. “Mmm...? Where's Ren?”

“Ren? I think he's asleep in Mink's room. Why are you asking about him?” Virus asked as he settled onto the couch.

“He ended up falling asleep on me earlier,” Trip said, sitting up and popping his back. He must have slept wrong against the couch. “...Or was that just a dream?”

“More than likely, you know Ren doesn't like to come around us,” Virus huffed. “We brought back food. I figured you'd want to eat something.” 

“Food does sound good right about now,” Trip sighed. With a bit of help from the couch he managed to pull himself up to his feet while fighting back another yawn. “Guessing we're eating in here?”

“Yes. Though Mink said he'd join us so we wouldn't feel quite so lonely. Tried to tell him he didn't have to do that, but he insists.” Virus shivered, and before he could say or do anything Trip had pulled the blanket from the other end of the couch and draped it around Virus. “Thank you, but I need to go get our food...”

“We can wait. You don't need to be cold,” Trip argues. He grinned, and Virus felt himself smile just a little bit.

“I'll bring enough for the three of us,” Mink said as he turned around. “Otherwise they'll stuff their gullets and won't save you two any.” Virus had learned long ago not to argue with Mink on matters like this, and instead decides to snuggle up against Trip to wait. His hand sought out Trip's and their fingers twined together softly.

“You're so warm...have you always been this warm?” Virus asked.

“Yes. I have. You've gotten colder,” he said. “You need more meat on you. Maybe if we put a few pounds on your frame you won't get as cold as often.” It was meant as a joke more than anything, but Virus decided to take hims seriously.

“If that's the case then I should probably eat more American food instead of my usual diet, even if American food makes me want to vomit,” Virus said. Trip pulled away and started to chuckle.

“I wasn't serious, you know. It was supposed to be a joke. I like you the way you are. You'd look weird if you were any bigger. And hey, if you get cold then that just gives me more excuses to snuggle you and keep you warm~,” he cooed. Virus's eyes rolled and he swatted Trip's shoulder playfully.

“Ass.”

“You love mine.” Virus sighed and shook his head.

“Can't argue there.” His head returned to Trip's shoulder, and he fell quiet for a long while. Trip could practically hear the gears turning in Virus's head.

“Thinking about something?” he asked.

“A lot, yes,” Virus sighed. “...More like remembering things.” Trip's face scrunched up a bit in annoyance.

“Are you still hung up on what happened back then?” he asked. When Virus didn't answer he snorted and shook his head. “I've told you a thousand times, I'm not angry with you or upset with you or anything like that. You did your best, I'm the one that didn't listen.”

“Yes but you could have been killed,” Virus hissed. It almost sounded like he was going to cry, which was enough to make Trip extremely concerned. “My stupidity nearly got you killed. My ARROGANCE nearly got you killed. I was scared to death I was going to be alone again.” And now Trip knew he was crying. After a long debate about whether or not it would be better to pretend he didn't notice he slowly reached over and began to wipe the tears away.

“But you're not. And I'm still here, aren't I? A little worse for the wear, but that's not a big deal. Besides, didn't you say that scars turn you on?” Trip laughed. Virus sniffled quietly and looked up at him.

“Not ones I've caused to you,” he whispered. Trip let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head.

“Dammit, Virus. Stop wallowing in the past. You know it won't do any good. So what, I got shot a few times and had to spend a few months in the hospital. No big deal. 's not the first time that happened,” he argued.

 

“That was different, Trip, you were in the fucking ICU on life support for the first three of those months,” Virus spat. Trip hadn't heard Virus this upset in a long time. A few years, at least. “You should have DIED. No if's, and's, or but's. When you woke up the doctors called it a miracle. And for the first time in over twenty years I would have felt disgust at having another person's blood on my hands.”

“Virus...” Trip straightened up on the couch, wrapping an arm around Virus's shoulders gently. “I know you feel guilty. And I know you feel horrible for it. But it's the past. I'm still alive, and like you said I should have died. But I didn't. Because there was no way in hell I was going to leave you alone. I uhhh...love you too much for that.” He mumbled the last of the words and looked away to try and hide the blush on his face from Virus; instead it gave away the fact that his face was red and made Virus laugh before he leaned over and kissed Trip's cheek softly.

“Love you too,” he said and set his head back against Trip's shoulder. “Ugh. I haven't cried in years. I bet you must think I'm an idiot.”

“Nah.” He sighs and closes his eyes. “Just means our consciences are working. Unfortunately.”

“Ugh. Don't remind me that I know what 'guilt' feels like now,” Virus grumbled. “I spent almost the entirety of my life without that and all of a sudden I don't like watching people suffer. Go figure.”

“Wonder if Toue would try and condition us again if we were still working for him and felt guilty about doing our job,” Trip wondered aloud. “I mean, things like that tend to cause problems when your job is killing people and trying to force others into becoming brainwashed pawns meant to keep the boss's hands clean.” Virus chuckled and shifted around to lean more into Trip.

“More than likely,” Virus laughed. “It probably would have been much more simple than before, since we were older and had already gone through the original 'treatments.' Instead of being forced to spend years back in the Institute it probably would have only taken a few months at the most. Maybe as little as a few hours, if he'd managed to find a quicker way to do it.”

“Knowing Toue he probably did,” Trip said. “Or he would have forced Sei to do it.”

“More than likely he would have done that. Were Sei-san still alive, anyway. By this time he might have already gotten his hands on Aoba-san and wouldn't have any use for Sei-san anymore.” Virus sighed and looked into the flames of the fire. “...I wish Sei-san had survived. He was so friendly with us.”

“I think Sei would have been friendly with anyone not prodding him with needles or trying to use him to control the world, Virus. But...I like to think we'd made a real friend with him. And I liked to think he was genuinely concerned for our well-being.” He could faintly hear the conversation going on in the kitchen and could tell Mink was on his way back to the living room. “Let's drop the subject for now, though.”

“Agreed.”

“Sorry I took so long. Koujaku and Mizuki were trying to start a food fight of all things. Children, the lot of them...” Mink circled around and settled down on far end of the couch; he held two plates out to Virus and Trip for them to take. “Thankfully I managed to stop them before too much damage was caused.”

“Sounds like things were starting to get a little dangerous in there,” Trip laughed.

“Just a bit,” Mink agreed, even as he smiled. “It was also a bit too rowdy in there for my liking.”

“Well I'm sorry to hear that,” Virus said. “But I suppose we can have a private conversation, just the three of us now. Oh...by the way, Trip, I have a present for you.” A blond eyebrow propped up in confusion.

“A present for me?” he asked, watching Virus set his plate down and crawl off the couch and walk over to a small plastic bag beside the door. He scooped it up and walked back over to sit on the couch, then set the beg in Trip's lap.

“I thought about this earlier,” Virus explained, watching Trip set his food to the side to begin pawing through the bag. Inside were various art supplies; watercolors, acrylic paints, colored pencils, drawing pencils, stencils, sketch books, and a few smaller canvases. “If you need any bigger canvases there's a store in town that sells them. But it...it would have been harder to hide, then. And I wanted to get them for you as a present.”

“Wow. That's...thanks.” Trip pulled out a pack of pencils and looked them over. “You even remembered which brand I used. I bet it wasn't cheap, was it?” Virus chuckled and patted Trip's shoulder. 

“Don't worry about that, okay? It's a present. You're not supposed to concern yourself with the cost of it.” He leaned over and kissed Trip's cheek softly before picking up his food and going back to eating. After continuing to look through the bag for a little bit longer, Trip set it off to the side to finish his food. He let Virus snuggle up to him, and even occasionally fed him food from his plate. The only disturbances came in the form of Hersha and Welter coming to ask them when they were planning on coming to bed and Noiz running out of the kitchen with Mizuki's plate just to tease him, so the evening passed in quiet peace. Once they'd finished Trip grabbed the bag of art supplies and retreated back to the bedroom with Virus. Thirty minutes passed, and Virus was just finally settling into bed when there was a quiet knock on the door. He looked over at Trip in confusion before crawling out of bed to open it.

“Am I...bothering you?”

“Of course not, Aoba-san. Why don't you come in? It's cold out in the hallway,” Virus said, stepping out of the way for Aoba to come inside. Once over the threshold Virus shooed him over to the bed (Aoba now realized they'd pushed the two twin sized beds together to make a bigger bed) and shut the door. “So if I may ask, why are you here?”

“Oh. Well I was wondering if I could...stay the night with you two,” he said slowly, face already beginning to bloom in betrayal. A coy grin settled on Virus's lips as he walked over to join the pair on the bed.

“Hmmm...I don't know Trip,” he teased and let his eyes wander over to the other blond. “Should we let him stay the night with us?”

“It does get awfully lonely in this bed,” Trip said, leaning over to softly kiss Aoba's neck. A shiver shot down his spine, and instinctively he pressed himself against Trip's chest. “I think we could use the company...”

“I suppose you're right,” Virus sighed, sliding down onto the soft sheets in front of Aoba. A second later Virus scooted forward to straddle him. “We could use the company. Keep the boogeyman away.” Trip snorted and covered his face to look off to the side.

“That was horrible Virus.”

“Oh shut it, you know this type of thing isn't my forte,” Virus hissed and snatched a pillow to chunk at Trip. It smacked him square in the face and sent him flopping back onto the bed with a laugh. Aoba chuckled softly, and even Virus was smiling at that. “So what if I'm bad at sweet talk. I can still rattle off such dirty things I'd have a nun drowning me in holy water.” Trip moaned and let a hand run down his chest towards his half-hard cock to palm it through his sleep pants.

“Can't argue that point. Just thinking about it gets me hard,” he murmured. Without warning a delicate hand shot over to pull the waistband down, and he was about to chastise Virus for being too eager when he felt warmth wrap around the shaft instead of coldness. He craned his neck a bit to see Aoba nervously stroking him with one hand and teasingly grabbing Virus's crotch with the other. Aoba's face was already a bright red, and they hadn't even got to the sex yet. Both blonds found it absolutely adorable.

“He looks so cute like this,” Virus purred. His hips pressed into the hand between his legs slowly, enjoying the barely there friction and loving the fact that Aoba was being a tease. It was almost like he wanted control tonight. Virus was willing to hand the reigns over, if Aoba really wanted that, and proved he could handle them both.

Virus could sense a bit of hesitation coming from Aoba, could see the way his eyes were trained on Virus's lips. Then Aoba leaned forward just a bit before drawing back. He was obviously debating whether or not he wanted to kiss Virus. He decided to answer for Aoba, and a hand settled up in blue locks to pull him in for a sweet, tender kiss. They hadn't shared a kiss like this in ages, sex with him was almost always rushed because of work or plans or the risk of someone barging in and as much as Aoba enjoyed being watched by the others, being walked in on was still an immediate mood killer for him. 

A tongue flicked out nervously to brush against Virus's lips, and he quickly opened his mouth to deepen the kiss. Aoba's tongue pushed passed his lips eagerly to wrap around his and start a war for dominance. Almost immediately Virus submitted. He wanted Aoba to test his personal boundaries and see just how controlling he could be before he lost it and fell into his submissive role again. The hand in Aoba's hair tightened when the hand on Virus's crotch pushed into his underwear to grab him and squeeze the head lightly. His hips bucked forward while he let out a low moan.

Teeth clamped down onto the side of Virus's neck and he moaned again. Another hand traveled down the back of his underwear to grab and squeeze and knead his ass, and he knew Trip was the culprit. The teeth traveled up to tug at his right gauge and he shivered into the kiss.

“I was kind of hoping we could take things slow tonight,” he whispered, knowing the effect that would have on Virus. “Tease him until he's begging us to fuck him then spend all night inside of him, watching his face every time he gets right there, right when he's about to finally cum, and listen to him whine in defeat when we stop and let it die back down. You like that plan?” He pulled on the earring again, feeling a shock of lust travel down to his groin at the needy moan it caused. When he and Aoba broke the kiss, Virus's face was almost as red as Aoba's.

“I like that plan,” he breathed before turning to kiss Trip instead. Unlike his kiss with Aoba this one was heated and full of passion. His free hand reached up to grab the back of Trip's skull and pull hard, and he felt his cock twitch at the hiss Trip gave. He pulled Aoba's hand away from his cock and slid over to the nightstand to pull out a barely used bottle of lube. Cherry flavored, of all things.

When Trip flicked the cap open Aoba's eyes fluttered with anticipation and he pushed his ass out for Trip to reach it easier. He yipped a bit at the slightly chill air touching his skin but it quickly melted into a needy moan when he felt a slick finger teasing his entrance. He quickly pushed back, partly to hurry and force Trip's finger inside of him, and partly to adjust himself to a better position for him to get at Virus's length instead. Trip chuckled and reached around to pinch one of Aoba's nipples.

“Eager little thing, isn't he?” he asked. The tip of his nail scraped across a hardened nipple and Aoba whined in response. His ass pushed back harder and he tugged at Virus's cock before pulling the head of it into his mouth. Virus's toes curled, sounding like pop rocks going off underneath him, and sighed softly. “You okay?”

“Yes, I can barely move these days without sounding like a bowl of cereal. But tha-aaahhhhhhh...” He thrust forward into Aoba's mouth gently and reached down to brush his bangs out of the way. “...That's not important.” Trip made a sound of agreement and eased a second finger in, and Virus gasped at the vibrations Aoba moaning caused. “Oh that felt good...” Now Trip was twisting and curling his fingers, grinning from ear to ear at every reaction it pulled not only from Aoba but from Virus as well. After a long while of teasing he pushed a third inside. This made Aoba pause, and he pulled back with a soft breath.

“Wha...?”

“I don't think Virus wants to take turns with you tonight,” Trip answered, spreading his fingers just a bit. Aoba practically melted onto the mattress, fists balling up and toes curling at the feeling. “So we'll have you together. Now relax...we don't want to hurt you~.”

“Least not any more than you like,” Virus added while reaching down to put a hand underneath Aoba's chin to lift. That was all the coaxing he needed; he pushed himself up off the bed and pulled almost all of Virus into his mouth in one go. Without meaning to Virus grabbed a handful of blue hair and pulled. Instead of making the victim yelp and pull back, as it usually did, it made him moan happily and start to bob his head. By now Trip had a fourth digit inside and was happily teasing Aoba to no end. A thick stream of pre-cum connected the head of his cock to the sheets below. His body began to tense up little by little until he was almost as taught as a string with how close he was to his orgasm.

At the last minute, just as promised, Trip pulled back and left him feeling empty inside. And just as Trip said he would, Aoba whined pathetically and pulled back.

“T-Trip...don't...don't stop...!”

“Oh, but if I keep going I'll ruin our fun tonight~,” he chuckled. “And I don't want that.” There was another whine and Aoba reached down to finish himself off. His hand was quickly swatted away by Virus.

“We want to take our time, Aoba-san...” Two of his fingers began walking up from Aoba's navel to his chest before starting to draw swirls in his skin. “And if you finish too soon, then we'll have to cut our fun short. And we don't want that.” His lips curled up in a seductive smile. “Do we Trip?”

“Nope.” There was a soft sound of slick wetness, following by Trip's hands grabbing Aoba's hips and squeezing them. He then slid them back to spread Aoba's cheeks, watching himself sink inside with glazed eyes and a slightly open mouth. He was slow, only thrusting in a bit at a time. It felt like an eternity before he was finally seated to the hilt, and Aoba let out another moan in ecstasy. He sat there, basking in the feeling of Trip's thick cock prying him open, before feeling an arm under his chest tug him up. Taking the hint he pulled himself up the rest of the way by wrapping his arms behind him around Trip's nec.

“Heh. He learned,” Trip said. He hooked both arms underneath Aoba's knees to hike them up and spread them, giving Virus complete access to his entrance. However, he sat there for a few moments, admiring the sight of the two connected together.

“Such a lovely sight,” Virus said. “Trip...why don't you bounce him a bit? I want to watch before I fuck him.”

“Virus, I do-haaaaaaah!” Trip quickly jerked Aoba up before letting him drop back down and impaling himself on Trip's dick. He did this a few more times, watching Virus's eyes gloss over at the sight of him sliding in and out of Aoba. At this point the poor boy was little more than a cocksleeve honestly, but he didn't seem to mind. His head was propped back on Trip's shoulder and there was already a small trail of drool rolling down from the corner of his mouth. His cock bounced up and down eagerly with each thrust, a small bead of pre-cum bubbling up at the tip every time he fell back down. Once Virus had had his fill of watching he leaned over and grabbed the lube, popping the cap open and spreading a generous amount over himself. To make sure it spread evenly he gave himself a few quick tugs, shivering slightly at the feeling, and settled in between Aoba's legs in front of him.

“Stay relaxed, Aoba...I'm pushing in now,” he warned. Trip hiked up until just the tip of his cock was inside, and when he could feel Virus's pushed against his he slowly began to let Aoba down. It was a slow process, one filled with kisses and love bites and promises of anything and everything for later. After a while Aoba found the burn of being stretched so much somewhat pleasant, which concerned him at first until he realized Virus and Trip were both now completely inside of him. His shoulders were beginning to lock up so he unwrapped his arms from Trip's necka dn instead wrapped them around Virus's.

“How do you feel?” Trip asked quietly, kissing the back of Aoba's left shoulder softly. When Aoba shivered he squeezed the both of them tightly and made them sigh.

“Feels...good,” he whispered. He let out a soft moan and shifted his weight around a bit so he wasn't relying entirely on Trip to keep him up. His nails dug into the back of Virus's shoulders softly. His toes were curled and he was breathing slowly. The burn felt pleasant, but it was still uncomfortable at the same time. It didn't take long before the feeling subsided, and he gave an experimental wiggle to see how it felt. One of them brushed up against his sweet spot and nearly made him see stars. “Hngh!”

“Is it safe to move now?” Virus asked. Aoba nodded quickly an began trying to weakly roll his hips down to make thm move. Trip was the first to pull back, and when he pushed back inside Virus withdrew. Soon the pair had set up a slow, lazy pace that had Aoba whining and squirming around to try and make them hurry up and fuck him senseless. But that wasn't what they wanted tonight. They wanted to take their time, enjoy having Aoba to themselves and tease him for as long as they could. With each thrust one could feel the other moving and the friction combined with the overwhelming heat of Aoba's insides was quickly pulling the pair to their first orgasms far before they wanted to finish. By this point Aoba was a whining mess and had left a few red marks down Virus's back; when the two of them stopped he straightened up a bit.

“Why'd you stop?” he asked.

“Because we want this to last as long as possible,” Virus answered. “We're going to take our time with you and make you feel like you're in heaven before we're through with you.” Aoba shivered excitedly and pulled himself up to kiss Virus heatedly. When he pulled away his eyes were dark with lust.

“I'm looking forward to that,” he said quietly. 

The rest of the night was a blur for Aoba; between constantly being pushed to the brink of orgasm and being denied his release to the wicked words Virus and Trip would say to him he felt like he was going mad. He wasn't sure how many times he bit either of them, or how many marks he'd wake up to find on his own skin, but he didn't care. What he cared about was that he'd never felt like he was so high before. He'd lost track of how long they'd been going or how many times they'd kept him from finding release, but eventually he could hear birds chirping outside of the window. The sun still hadn't even begun to break the horizon.

“If we keep going Mink might get mad at us,” Trip mused, flicking his hips forward quickly to graze against Aoba's prostate. “I think we should hurry this up...”

“As much as I hate it you're right,” Virus sighed. He pushed Aoba back up again and put his arms back behind Trip's neck. “Get ready Aoba...”

“Wha...? Ahhhhhhhh~!” The two were now moving at a brutal pace inside of him, bent on pulling themselves to orgasm as quickly as they could. Virus reached down between them and took Aoba's length in his hands to stroke it. Now there was the sound of skin slapping skin and heavy panting in the small room. Aoba's eyes rolled back up into his head and before he could stop himself he let out a high-pitched whine. “C-close...!”

“Hurry up and cum for us, Aoba-san,” Virus huffed. His thumb ran across the sensitive slit at the tip a few times, which made Aoba tense up again.

“Just a bit more, Aoba...” Trip pushed Aoba's head out of the way with his own and sunk his teeth into pale flesh to leave a nice mark, and with a few more thrusts he forced himself as deep into Aoba as he could and came. A few seconds later and Virus joined him, covering Aoba's insides with heat and pulling him those last few inches over the brink himself. He came with a shout and stained Virus's chest and neck; a few drops even managed to splash his chin. Virus's hand continued to move across Aoba's cock until he was completely spent and there was nothing more before pulling away slowly.

“I think...that was time well spent,” he chuckled, bringing his hand up to lick away the semen covering it. “Don't you, Trip?”

“Definitely,” he groaned, slowly letting Aoba's legs drop before pulling out of him. Virus pulled away as well, and a fresh grin spread on his face as he watched a thick stream of white dribble from Aoba's asshole. “I think we should do this again.”

“I couldn't agree more, Trip. But for now, let's get him cleaned up and put him to bed, hmm?” Trip nodded slowly and swept Aoba up into his arms bridal style before carrying him off to the bathroom. It was a joint effort to deal with the mess they'd made, but soon enough Aoba was dressed in one of Trip's button-ups as a night shirt and was now wearing a pair of Virus's boxers. This time Virus carried him, taking him back to the bed and easing him under the covers before sliding in to his right. Trip flopped down and crawled underneath to join them on Aoba's left. Both of them slung an arm around Aoba's waist and squeezed him.

“Goodnight, you two,” he mumbled sleepily. Both Virus and Trip leaned over and left soft kisses on his cheeks.

“Goodnight, Aoba.”

“Goodnight, Aoba-san.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to apologize PROFUSELY for the delay in chapter. ;-; I feel horrible because I keep disappearing after uploading a chapter for like, six months and leaving you guys hanging. I don't mean to. I really don't. Life just hates me. ;-; Thank you to everyone who has had the patience to put up with me and put up with my awkward upload schedule. To make up for it I made this a bit longer than what I usually put up. I think.

Sunlight filtered in through the window, a soft warm glow covering the whole room. A lone redbird, probably the last one awake, was singing its heart out in the window sill, trying to attract the attention of its sleeping brethren. A fox skittered by the window, followed closely by its mate and kits. Winter hadn't officially started, and the temperatures were warming back up for one last hurrah before dipping down into freezing for the rest of the year. It was peaceful.

It was even more peaceful in Virus' bedroom; he felt a warm body pressed against his side, warm breath tickling his neck and making him sigh contently. His fingers were curled up in bright blue hair and settled on the small of Aoba's back simply to hold him close and cherish him. But then something began to concern him. He woke up for some reason, and it was a startling one. He just wasn't sure what woke him up. He hadn't heard anything, or else Trip would have already gotten up. No one had touched him because he didn't grab the knife he kept underneath the pillow for self defense. Which meant someone was watching him, and when he realized that there was a missing weight in the bed he relaxed.

"You woke me up," he whispered, voice hoarse and dry from sleep. He cracked a blue eye open and waited for the optics to focus as best as they could without his glasses on. He could just make out Trip sitting in a chair beside the bed, sketchpad in his hands and a pencil slowly scratching across the surface. "Which means you were staring at me too long."

"Sorry, I was trying to make sure I got your face just right," Trip answered just as quietly. He didn't want to wake Aoba up; he knew if he did Aoba would make him get rid of the sketch he was working on, and he didn't want to do that. It may not be a picture they can hang up somewhere, but it was something that Virus and Trip could hold onto to remember the sweet times with Aoba. "Hopefully Aoba doesn't notice like you did."

"Oh I don't think he'll react," he said and smiled. "He's like a rock when he's sleeping, you know this." As if to prove the point he started to softly run his hand through Aoba's hair. After a moment he whined and pressed himself more into Virus' chest to snuggle. "See? Completely out of it. I feel you could stare at him for three hours and he probably wouldn't move."

"Oh now nice it must be," Trip muttered and returned focus to his drawing. "I long for the days I could sleep and not have to worry about being woken up if someone was watching me. Must be a nice feeling."

"Must be," Virus sighed. After a moment Aoba made another soft noise, and his eyes started to flutter open. "Oh. I'm sorry, Aoba-san. I didn't mean to wake you up with our chatter."

"Shut it..." Aoba whined. He sat up slowly, pausing as some of his joints popped before stretching with his arms above his head. He brought them down and began rubbing his eyes softly after a long moment. "Time is it?" Trip leaned over to tap the screen of his coil.

"A little bit before ten," he answered. "Mink said he's making breakfast early, apparently Ren woke up and won't go back to sleep." Aoba groaned and let his head fall back. He sat there for a long while in silence before rolling out of bed on Trip's side. His feet hit the hardwood floor and he immediately yanked them back.

"Sonofabitch that's cold!" He quickly tucked his feet back under the blanket and shivered. "Virus, where's your slippers? We're closer in size than Trip and I are."

"They're on my side, of course." Virus leaned over the edge of the bed and began feeling underneath it for his slippers. His fingers brushed against something fuzzy, and he grabbed the patch of fur to pull.

"HEY!" Calmly Virus let him go and 'hmph'ed in the back of his throat.

"Maybe you shouldn't sleep so close to where my slippers are, Welter. Would you push them out to me so I don't grab you again?" A few seconds later and two fuzzy slippers were being tossed out from under the bed. "Thank you."

"Don't be grumpy, Welter. This is the first time anyone's bothered you two in at least a week," Trip said. "Be thankful." He didn't hear a response, so he assumed Welter had already gone back to sleep mode before he could even speak. Go figure.

Aoba took the slippers from Virus when offered them and quickly shoved them onto his feet. After a moment of admiring the material and wiggling his toes around he hopped out of bed and began hunting for his clothes while muttering 'It's too damn cold for this...' repeatedly. Once he was dressed he headed for the bedroom door.

"Oh, Mink said Ren wanted to talk to you," Trip said suddenly. "Just remembered. He's probably in the kitchen right now, I'd look there for him."

"Thanks," Aoba said before shutting the door. Trip and Virus both stared for a while before looking over at each other.

"You don't think...?"

"It's possible."

"Oh, great...more tension in the house."

 

Ren was snuggled to Mink's back, arms wrapped around his chest, holding him and peppering kisses along his shoulders lovingly. He was also humming softly, some old pop song that had been popular years before that Mink couldn't quite remember the name of but could tell you who the artist was. One of those songs. Every time he went to take a step Ren was right there with him, perfectly in tune and not even a bit of a nuisance. Everything felt so calm the hairs on the back of Mink's neck were standing up pleasantly. He couldn't ask for a better morning.

"Hey Ren. You wanted to talk to me?" Mink deflated a little bit and sighed. Oh of course this would have to happen today. Things were going to be so peaceful...

He felt Ren pull off of him and turn to look at Aoba, and he heard Aoba's breath hitch. There was a long moment of realization, then he spoke again.

"...Can we talk somewhere private?" he whispered. His voice broke like he was about to start crying. "Maybe...outside?"

"I'll bring your breakfast out to you," Mink said with a smile. He gently nudged Ren's back to coax him to move. It took him nudging another two times before Ren finally did, taking Aoba's hand and pulling him outside in a rush. Mink was alone in the kitchen again, the peace and quiet only being broken when he cracked another egg or threw another slice of bacon in the pan. The hairs on his neck started to stand back up again.

"Morning, Mink," Koujaku grumbled. He rubbed at his eyes and dropped down into one of the chairs surrounding the table. "Ugh...I couldn't sleep last night, I don't know why..."

"You should have come to me, I would have made you some chamomile tea," Mink said. "Or I could have tired you out and helped you sleep that way."

"Ah...I didn't want to be a bother, honestly...otherwise I would have without hesitation. I didn't want to wake Noiz up," he admitted. The real reason he didn't want to do that was because he knew Aoba wasn't in there, and he was worried that he would have started causing problems if he'd gone into Mink's room. Probably would have opened his big mouth and said the wrong thing or something, knowing him. He didn't mean to, really, it just...slipped out sometimes.

"Well you know my bed is always welcome, you don't even have to ask," Mink said as he slid some eggs onto a plate. "Noiz was probably a little lonely last night too. He could have used the company." Koujaku started bristling a little bit. Not because Noiz was lonely, but because he knew that was because Aoba was in bed with those two. The two he hated with a fiery passion. "I'm surprised Mizuki and Clear didn't try and help."

"Mmm...those two were busy with each other anyway," he says and sighs softly. "I just pretended like I was asleep because I didn't want to bother them. It's fine. I'm sure I'll be able to sleep tonight." He scratched an itch on the back of his head and groaned. "Is there coffee?"

"Just about to start it, actually. Maybe you'd like to do that for me?" Mink offered. Koujaku stood and shuffled over to the coffee makers to start on the communal pot of coffee. It still bothered him a little bit that Virus had special privileges and got his own damn pot of coffee. Hell it still bothered him that the others were so fucking okay with these two being here like this. It made his blood boil.

"Good morning, Mink-san! Koujaku-san!" Clear bounced out, a broad grin on his face and spring in his step. "We're sorry if we kept you up last night, Koujaku-san..." Koujaku waved him off and fished the coffee out of the cabinets. "Mizuki-san should be out soon, I think he's taking a shower right now."

"I should have breakfast finished before then." Mink flipped a pancake and sniffled a little bit. The cold was starting to stuff up his nose.

"Where's Aoba and Ren?" Koujaku asks. "I would have thought they'd be out by now."

"They're talking out on the porch, I wouldn't bother them. It seems to be something private," Mink answered. "I'm only going to step out to give them food, and then I'm staying inside."

"Did something happen?" Clear asked, his head tilting a little bit to the side.

"I think so. But again, it's private. Don't worry about it," Mink answered. "Start waking the others up for me. I don't want them eating when it's cold."

"No need to, I'm already up," Noiz yawned as he walked in. "And I think I heard Virus and Trip talking in their room. I think that's all of us awake now." He walked over and sat down in Koujaku's chair with a thump. He yawned again and let his head hit the kitchen table. "Too early..."

"Hush, it's almost noon," Mink said and turned to look at him. "You don't need to be sleeping in so much. You'll regret it when you're almost as old as I am."

"I'm honestly starting to regret it now," he laughed weakly. "But it'll be a hassle to fix my sleep schedule." The smell of coffee started filling the kitchen and he grimaced. "Hey, can one of you bring me a glass of juice or something?" The fridge door opened and Clear moved quickly to get a glass for Noiz. "I'm hungry...you said that you'd have breakfast done soon, right?"

"Yes. Shouldn't be much longer," Mink replied. 

"Good, I'm starving," Noiz mumbled leaned back in his chair. "Though honestly I'm also kind of tired...it's too early to be awake right now. Can't I go back to sleep?"

"No one woke you up, Noiz. You got up on your own," Mink pointed out as he cracked one last egg. "You could easily go back to sleep after you eat." He didn't hear Noiz say anything, so it was obvious that Noiz knew he was planning something. "But there's something I want to do today. With all of you."

"And what would that be?" Mizuki asked as he walks out.

"I want to show you something," Mink answered. "It's important to me. And I hope you'll humor me on this." Mizuki shrugged and came over to plop down beside Noiz.

"Don't see why we wouldn't. It's you, and this is your home. We'd be kind of rude if we didn't, you know?" He shook his head, flicking tiny water droplets everywhere; Noiz reached up and grunted while covering his face to block the water. "Sorry."

"Maybe next time you could dry your hair before you walk out here?" Noiz laughed. He wiped the few droplets that hit him off and looked over to Koujaku. "Had your daily intake of coffee yet?"

"I have," Koujaku answered as Mink dropped a bit of food on two plates and picked them up to take outside.

"Where's he going?" Mizuki asked.

"Aoba and Ren are outside talking," Koujaku said. "It's something private, so we should stay here." Mizuki raised his head and made a sound in the back of his throat in agreement before leaning forward on the table. "Part of me wonders if maybe Mink was expecting this to be a free for all with us or if we're supposed to wait until he gets back."

"He always talks about how we're all 'grown ass men,' so I assume we're all just supposed to get what we want," Noiz answered and stood up. "So I'm going to stuff my face."

"I second that motion." Mizuki followed after him, and Koujaku stopped beside them to pick at the food as well. "Make sure we leave enough for Mink."

"I know, I know." Noiz walked off with a plate piled far too high with food and sat back in his spot. "Make sure you two fatasses don't eat it all either."

"Oh ha ha, Noiz. We don't eat as much as you do," Mizuki teased. He ruffled Noiz's hair as he walked by. Noiz scowled at him and growled playfully. "Oh no, the big scary monster's coming to kill us! What should we do?"

"Tame it with food and sex," Koujaku laughed. "Seems to work well enough so far." He laughed again at the death glare Noiz shot him. "Oh don't take it personally. It wasn't an insult. It was more...a playful jab."

"You're lucky I love you, old man," Noiz said and smirked. Now it had become a playful insult, one Koujaku could tolerate. Especially with that smile. So instead of being angry he just shook his head and shoved a piece of bacon in his mouth. Noiz stuck his tongue out and started eating as well.

About this time Virus and Trip walked into the kitchen, hesitating a moment when they realized Mink was nowhere to be seen. They started to retreat back down the hallway before Noiz clearing his throat stopped them.

"Hey. Come here. Sit by me," he said and kicked out two chairs to his right. "I even saved you some food."

"That's...kind of you, Noiz-san, but I don't think we'll be eating this morning," Virus said slowly. "Trip and I will-"

"Stop talking and come sit by me," Noiz said, this time a little firmer. Virus and Trip looked between each other before sighing and shaking their head, then trudging over and sitting down in the chairs. Noiz pushed his plate over to them while picking food out of his teeth with his tongue. "Eat up. I've barely seen you two eat since we've been here."

"Oh...thank you, Noiz." Trip and Virus began nervously picking at the food. They kept their eyes on Koujaku and Mizuki, who seemed to be ignoring them to have a conversation themselves. It let the two of them relax a little bit, and soon they were having a proper conversation with Noiz as well. When Trip felt a weight settle in his lap he instinctively reached down to pet it and found very soft faux fur settled there. "Hello Welter."

"We figured we'd actually join you for once," he purred quietly. Noiz happened to glance up just as Mink walked back in. "They still talking?"

"Yes. They'll probably be a while," he answered. "Glad to see you all enjoyed my cooking. Not that it surprises me any." He walked over to where he'd left the food and grabbed the plate as his own. Then he walked over to the coffee maker and poured himself a cup. "I suggest we leave them alone until they're ready to speak. Aoba and Ren, I mean. This is a private matter, and one that they need to talk through for as long as needed."

"Is something wrong?" Clear asked. His voice was shaky with concern. "Are they hurt? Are they sick?"

"No, Clear. It's just a private matter. I'm not at liberty to say, as I promised I wouldn't. Press me all you want, but I won't say anything." He sat down beside Koujaku and calmly sipped at his coffee. Mizuki scowled and leaned back in his chair.

"Hey, we shouldn't be keeping secrets from each other. Secrets make things difficult." He looked over at Mink, and his scowl transformed into a concerned grimace. "If it's something serious I think we should all know too."

"It's serious, yes. But please understand that this is something we need to keep out of, until they decide to bring us completely up to speed. I only know the gist, and I promised to not even discuss that with you. Once they've finished they'll tell us, I've been assured. It isn't something that will cause problems unless YOU let it cause problems. So please, when they finally bring it up, act like civilized adults and don't get angry." Koujaku and Mizuki turned to look at each other with raised brows. They didn't like the way that sounded.

"I hope you know what you're talking about," Koujaku huffed. Mink barely cracked a smile and continued drinking his coffee. Mink was relaxed and obviously not the least bit concerned about what was going on, so...maybe there wasn't a problem. Maybe.

"I'm sure everything will work out in the end," Virus said. "Mink has said there won't be a problem, so there won't be a problem. We should trust him. There's no sense arguing over something out of our control." Trip realized Virus didn't have his usual morning cup of coffee, so he stood up and went to make it for him.

"Oh come on. Really? You think we don't know that already? Are you getting senile?" Koujaku said, eyes narrowing at Virus. "We aren't stupid kids."

"I never said you were stupid kids," Virus huffed. "I merely said-"

"I know what you said. You're being an arrogant asshole, as usual," Mizuki snapped. "You don't have to treat us like we're lower than you. I thought we were equals in this relationship, hmm?" Virus's eyes slanted and he straightened up a bit.

"I have tried to treat you like equals, and at every turn you two fight me tooth and nail. I have never intentionally caused problems, yet you two seem to hate my guts." Mizuki slammed his hands on the table and stood up.

"Of course we hate you! Think about all the shit you did! All the team members whose lives you've ruined, all the people you two have killed, all the damage you two have done, all because you were working for that bastard! And you never had the balls to say no!" Virus couldn't even respond; he kept his head hung low, refusing to look at either of them. "You know I'm right. That's why you're not answering me."

"Mizuki, sit down," Mink growled.

"No! I'm not going to! I've been sitting by for two fucking years with my mouth shut! I'm sick and fucking tired of it!" Virus was starting to shrink back into the chair he sat in. "Aoba and Mink have been so quick to forgive you for everything you've done, but I can't. WE can't," he said while waving a hand over at Koujaku. "We have wanted you gone from the moment you set foot in the house. We never said anything because we didn't want to upset Aoba. But he's busy now, and you've hit my last goddamn nerve."

"Mizuki, sit down now." Mink reared up to his full height and stepped over to stand beside Mizuki. His normally soft eyes were hardened in anger, and they were trained on Mizuki. His arms were crossed in front of his chest sternly. Mizuki just rolled his eyes at Mink and flopped back down in his chair. Mink turned to give the same glare to Koujaku, who looked off to the side in embarrassment. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. We are a family. We treat everyone equal. That includes the ones you 'hate.' Because whether you like it or not, they're here, and they're staying. They make Aoba happy, and we all want that. There's no sense in keeping our petty arguments going. They do nothing but cause problems and hurt each other. Aoba and Noiz and I wish for them to stay, so they're staying. There's nothing you can say to change that."

"Wow, we're outside talking for thirty minutes and you two start ripping each other's heads off. Are we really the only thing keeping you guys together? Because that seems kinda petty," Aoba laughed. He leaned against the door frame, arms crossed in front of him and a wicked grin on his face. "Guess that means we can't go anywhere, can we?"

"The hell are you..." Mizuki's eyes narrowed for a moment, then widened again. "What the hell!? Why are you here!?"

"Oh, such a loving reunion. I was hoping you'd greet me with outstretched arms and words of affection," Aoba said. Sarcasm dripped from every word. "Then again the last time we met I was using you to keep myself entertained, so...yeah."

"I thought you were destroyed or something after the fall of Oval Tower," Mizuki said. "Why are you back?"

"Hmm? Oh I wasn't destroyed. I was just locked up in a nice little corner of Aoba's mind and never said a fucking word. Few months ago though something started rattling my cage. Surprise surprise. As soon as I got the chance I took back over and oh, what do I find? You all bickering at each other over something someone did in a life or death situation. Hmph." He looked over at Virus and Trip now. "Long time no see."

"It has been a while, hasn't it?" Virus asked. He smiled just a little bit. "Glad to see you're in high spirits." Aoba's mouth opened to respond before he was forcibly shut from Mizuki's fist. His head bounced off of the edge of the doorframe and he grunted.

"Mizuki-san!" Clear scrambled over to pull Mizuki off of him; his arms wrapped around his chest to hold him tight. "Please, stop hurting him!"

"Oh come on, I enjoyed that. Been a while since I've had someone hit me that good," Aoba laughed. "Let him go. I kinda deserve this, honestly."

"You more than deserve this! You used me and hurt me, and you expect me to forgive you!? You're worse than Virus and Trip!" Mizuki yelled. Aoba's face dropped a little bit, and he pulled himself up to his feet. The pounding in his head was almost unbearable.

"I'm worse than them? Because Aoba would have been destroyed if I hadn't taken over? Because I was more focused on doing what Toue wanted to make sure we stayed alive? Because I did the same goddamn things they did? It was either that or I be killed, or worse, turned into a weak doll like Sei was and lose what little free will I had! At least when I was in control the word 'no' was still a possibility! I admit, I wasn't the best person, but goddammit I stayed alive. Like I did all those years before. I made sure we survived, and I was waiting for the chance to let Aoba back in control. To have a real conversation with him and for us to come to an understand. And I barely got the chance. Toue managed to get you all and use you all against Aoba just as I let him take over again. He was so weak and he was so close to breaking that he couldn't even properly lock me up. I stayed there, in that dark corner of his mind, of our mind, to keep the strain from him, because if he had tried to lock me up properly he probably would have destroyed his mind. I saved him. I kept him alive. And I did the same goddamn thing that Virus and Trip did. So tell me I'm worse than them." His bottom lip was quivering a little bit. Tears were starting to well up in his eyes too. "The only difference between us is that they kept themselves alive, and I kept myself alive. I guarantee you would be singing a different tune if they had done those things to protect us. Am I right?"

"I..." Mizuki was at a loss for words. Aoba had him cornered and he knew it. "...I can't understand this. I just...I just can't. The horrible things they did...they could have said no!"

"We couldn't." Virus reached over for his cup of coffee as Trip walked over. "If we even looked like we would disobey we would be killed. We thought it fun for so long we never even thought to question whether it was right. Toue taught us that it was; that watching the life drain from someone's eyes because they crossed your boss was good. Was what you were supposed to do. We didn't understand what we were doing was wrong until much, much later. After Toue had disappeared. We realized we were wrong and we felt disgusting. We feel. Disgusting. The people we killed, the people who have lost everything because of us...it all makes us feel like horrible monsters. It's so hard to cope with. We had no choice, because we never understood we had one. We aren't defending the things we did; we aren't apologizing for the things we did either. We are simply explaining things from our point of view. We desperately wish we could go back and speak to our parents and keep them from giving us up. But we can't. I believe the sayings is 'we made our beds, and now we'll lie in them.' It's extremely fitting in this situation." He looked down at his cup of coffee before standing up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go back to bed. Trip?"

"Coming," he whispered, following after Virus. The kitchen fell deathly silent now. No one wanted to speak. The thing that finally broke the silence was footsteps coming from the living room to the kitchen, then Ren clearing his throat.

"Come on. I think we should head back to Mink's room," Aoba sighed. Ren calmly took his hand and let himself be pulled along through the house. The bedroom door slammed shut, and again, silence dripped in the air and made it sickeningly heavy. Shortly after that, the others began to slowly file back to their respective rooms.

No one knew how to deal with this. And honestly, no one wanted to.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so long to get up, I've RUINED my EVERYTHING and it's SO HARD TO WRITE NOW. ;-; I STG I WILL get a more consistent uploading schedule, just bear with me, please? Also, this chapter doesn't explicitly state ANYTHING, but it IS heavily implied, hence all the warnings and shizz. Also, to thank you guys for putting up with my utter BULLSHIT I made this chapter extra long, and I'm probably gonna do that for a while now.

Almost immediately afterwards, it started to rain. A chill began to spread through the house which did little to cheer anyone up Despite the cold, and despite the rain, ten minutes later Virus found his way outside onto the porch, leaning on the railing and smoking a cigarette. He knew he'd be hacking a lung up later, but for now he was focused on trying to calm down. There was a fresh cup of coffee sitting on the railing beside him. Just as he finished his first cigarette he turned his head ever so slightly; someone was walking across the porch towards him.

"Surprised you're not inside, considering how cold it is," he commented before lighting up another. He heard a soft hum before a nice warmth settled against his side, and then another warmth wrapping around him. "Mmm? Oh, thank you for the blanket, Noiz."

"Well it's cold out here, I didn't think you'd want to stay out here and freeze your ass off." He scrunches his nose up when he smells the smoke. "You're smoking? Really? I thought you quit?"

"I thought I did too," he sighs and takes a long drag from his cigarette. "Buuuuut it seems I was wrong." Noiz stepped away from him and frowned.

"Smells horrible." Virus just hummed and looked over at him. "...You're really that upset...?"

"What do you think?" Virus growled and held his head in his hand. Noiz smiled sadly and pursed his lips while leaning against Virus. "Sorry. I shouldn't have snapped. Just...Mizuki really upset me."

"I know. He upset me too. He shouldn't have yelled at you," he said and reached over to take Virus' hand and hold it gently. "I wish I'd have had the balls to tell him to shut up."

"Don't worry, it's fine," Virus assured him and turned to kiss the top of his head softly. He brought his hand up to start stroking Noiz's hair but stopped when he remembered he had a smoke between two fingers. He palmed it over to his right hand then started petting Noiz. "Hopefully things will change soon. I'm tired of everyone bickering."

"I'm tired of everyone bickering too," Noiz admitted. He took Virus' mug of coffee and took a drink himself. He stayed quiet for a while, listening to Virus breathing and the rain falling onto the wood around him. After a long silence he looked over. "How's Trip taking all of this?"

"He's in his room stuffing his face with anything remotely sweet," Virus answered quietly. "He's really upset by this. Really really upset by this." He took another long drag from his cigarette and blew a few smoke rings. Silence settled comfortably in the air, neither one wanting to dispell the sense of peace that they'd found together. 

"...What was life like as a kid for you?" Noiz asked suddenly. He felt Virus tense beside him, half expected the question to be deflected or turned on its head somehow. Instead, Virus sighed slowly and took another drag from his cigarette.

"Horrible, to say the least," Virus deadpanned. "I would rather not go into details."

"But I want to know. How bad was it? What exactly happened?" Noiz pressed. Virus just shrugged and laid his head on Noiz.

"Nothing I feel like recounting," Virus answered curtly. Noiz began scowling and opened his mouth to pry further but was cut short by the sound of the front door opening behind them. He watched Virus tense up and frowned a little bit. Whoever had walked out was hesitating now. Noiz turned back to see who it was.

"Oh. Hey Mizuki," he said, and he saw Virus light up another cigarette. "I figured you'd be inside with Koujaku or something. You don't usually like the cold." Mizuki was silent for a long time.

"...I wanted to talk to Virus," he finally said. "I was hoping that he'd...that he'd well...I don't know. I'm sure he'll just tell me to fuck off anyway." Noiz looked over at Virus and watched him for a reaction, and for a long while Virus didn't move. But after a long time obviously weighing his options, he sighed and turned to look at Mizuki.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Virus asked. Mizuki sighed, fidgeting from foot to foot and refusing to look up.

"Do you...do you want to head inside where it's warmer? Noiz has a point, it's...it's really cold out here," he mumbled. He didn't hear Virus or Noiz move, and he started to panic a little bit. "I-I mean, if you don't want to it's fine, I understand."

"I think I'll take you up on that offer, actually," Virus hummed and turned to pick his coffee mug up from the banister. He tugged the blanket tighter around him and walked back inside, pausing a moment to let Noiz catch back up to him and cuddle against his side, then made a beeline for the kitchen. He could hear Mizuki following after them and tried to convince himself to relax. Mizuki didn't seem standoffish, and he didn't seem like he was planning on causing problems. So maybe he didn't need to worry about this.

Mizuki nervously dropped down into one of the chairs in the kitchen and leaned forward to brace himself on the table. Noiz moved over to the fridge and began rummaging around for something to munch on. He found some carrots and ranch, of all things, and brought them over to set them on the table. He walked over to the cabinets and pulled a bowl down to fill up. Virus took the opportunity to refill his coffee mug before sitting down at the table on the complete other side from Mizuki.

And then there was silence. Neither Virus nor Mizuki wanted to break the ice with each other. They were scared to say the wrong thing and cause another uproar. So the two stared at each other with long faces and tired eyes. It was Noiz who finally piped up and got the conversation going.

"So what did you want to talk to Virus about?" he asked, munching on a carrot and giving Mizuki a rather bored look. "Was it something important?"

"Kind of, actually," Mizuki admitted. He began fidgeting in his seat now, focusing solely on Noiz and still avoiding making eye contact with Virus. His thumbs twiddled slowly underneath the table. "I ummm...I wanted to...to talk to him. And ummm...to ummm..." His words were failing him now. He'd rehearsed the conversation a thousand times in his head and now only emptiness remained. Finally he managed to force enough words together to form a coherent sentence, albeit a short one. "...I wanted to apologize." Out of the corner of his eye he could see Virus jolt back and Noiz raise a pierced eyebrow at him.

"Apologize for what?" Virus asked. Mizuki looked up at the other two slowly for just a few seconds before jerking his head back down.

"For the way I've treated you over the years," he explained. His thumbs were catching each other and both Noiz and Virus could hear the skin rubbing against itself. "It was a dick thing. You...I didn't want to believe that you could change. That you actually felt bad for the things you've done, because you...you seemed to enjoy it too much. Back when you terrorized the Rib teams and worked for Toue. I always felt this...creepy vibe off of you two. And when I saw either of you smile I would just...I would always get extremely uncomfortable with you around. I hated it. I hated you. And then I found out what you'd done, and all the shit you've caused, and I just..." He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He looked like he was trying to decide what to say now. 

"You'd formed this idea in your head that you didn't want to let go of," Virus said calmly. Mizuki nodded slowly, still refusing to look up. "It's normal. It's always difficult for people to change their minds once they're so set in their ways. I don't hold it against you, Mizuki. I know most people wouldn't be able to, but...I understand why you felt that way. And I know better than to expect you to just suddenly treat me like I'm your best friend. I know things won't work that way. But if you could...maybe you could treat us both with a little bit of respect? Not...be so volatile with us? We're trying, and we've...suffered enough as it is. We would like some civility with everyone if we can get it." Now Mizuki was staring at the table, eyes glossed over in thought. A few seconds later he blinked and looked up.

"I can't promise you anything. I know I'll be trying to be a better person. I'm always the quickest to come to people's defence after all. I really do feel horrible for the way I treated you. I can see you've genuinely tried to be a better person. And after what...Aoba? I guess it's Aoba. I'm not sure. But after what happened earlier...it made me pull my head out of my ass and realize I was wrong. You're obviously willing to give me a chance. So I'm going to give you a chance." Silence hung heavy in the air again, now only broken by the sound of Noiz crunching his carrots. He was also the next to speak.

"So. Does this extend to both of them, or just Trip?" he asked. Honestly he'd expected Mizuki to panic and lock up; to spit out some bullshit excuse and try to turn the question around. But instead Mizuki stared up at him with a fierce light in his eyes that he only ever remembered seeing just before a Rib fight.

"Both of them. It wouldn't be fair to just...pull one out from under the bus, then leave the other one under it. I know it'll probably take Trip longer to think on this, and I'm fine with that. But I want to try and make up for the things I did." Virus chuckled from behind his coffee cup, which earned a confused look from Mizuki until a cupcake was thrust into his face.

"Want it?" Trip asked lowly. "Know you like sweets too." Mizuki smiled and pulled the sweet from Trip's fingers delicately. A peace offering, he realized, in the language Trip knew best.

"Thank you," he said, carefully peeling back the paper and taking a bite from it. The frosting was sweet, white chocolate he realized after a few moments. The cupcake itself was...red velvet. An odd combination he thought. But after a few moments of simply tasting it he realized it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Trip watched him as he ate it, and when Mizuki made a low contented hum in the back of his throat he pulled a chair over and plopped down in it. "That was actually my last one."

"Hmm? Trip you didn't have to," Mizuki managed through cupcake and frosting. He held a finger up to indicate he was continuing his conversation and chewed for another minute or so before swallowing. "Ugh, that was heavy going down...but you...you didn't have to give it to me. You could have given me something else to eat. Or something else in general." Trip shrugged and leaned back in his chair nonchalantly.

"Red velvet and white chocolate is my favorite. I heard what you said, so...I gave it to you. As my peace offering," he explained. His eyes were lidded, whether in boredom or tiredness Mizuki couldn't tell, which made him a little nervous. When Trip yawned Mizuki realized he was just tired, so he relaxed again. "So you're really serious about this? About being nice to us?"

"I am." Trip's eyes narrowed now, scrutinizing Mizuki and looking for the slightest hint of a lie. When he didn't see one he nodded and pulled up another cupcake to eat. This one looked more like a cheesecake, and after a moment Mizuki realized that it was, indeed, a cheesecake. "How did you get that? It looks like a cake shop made it, and I don't remember seeing it anywhere..." Trip pointed a finger at Virus and took a sizable bite. "He made them?"

"I have a thing for baking, as it turns out," Virus hummed. "So I'm actually the one who usually makes Trip's sweets for him. I...tried to make dinner for everyone too, a few times, but...every time someone would order takeout and 'conveniently' forget about that." Mizuki went quiet and looked down at the floor in shame.

"...Aoba never caught on that we didn't like you. Did he?" he finally asked. Noiz and Virus both scoffed, Virus moving to finally put the cigarette in his hands out.

"No he didn't. You acted perfectly normal around us. Or at least you did until right before we came here," Virus hummed. His eyes flicked up to look at Mizuki with a dark glare. "What finally snapped?"

"I don't know," Mizuki sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Maybe it was Noiz running away, maybe it was just us finally deciding we'd had enough...I wish I could tell you. I really do. I also wish I hadn't done the things I had or said the things that I did. You...you didn't deserve them. Any of them." He wanted to say more but his voice failed him; he couldn't find the words he was looking for anymore. Everything was starting to swirl and the edges of his vision were starting to turn a dark, inky black. His hands felt clammy and he felt like he was sweating buckets. He didn't know WHY this was happening and it scared him. Maybe it was the fact that he had finally started to realize just how horrible a person he'd been the past few years to people who had been dealt a shit hand in life like him, and he was scared that Virus or Trip or both of them or anyone would be angry with him. That they would tell him to piss off and that he'd lost his chance to make up for things. It didn't take long, though, for Mizuki to finally figure out what was happening. He was having a panic attack, or at least the beginnings of one.

Trip, it seemed, also knew what was going on, because he leaned in a little closer and began speaking in hushed tones.

"Mizuki. Can you hear me?" He waited for Mizuki to respond with a nod before continuing. "Okay. Can you speak?" This time Mizuki's head shook slowly from side to side. "Is it okay for me to touch you?" It took a long while before he had an answer; a very short nod. Trip carefully wrapped an arm around Mizuki, loose enough to keep him from feeling restrained but tight enough to help him feel supported, and began slowly running a hand through his hair with the other. One of Mizuki's hands latched onto Trip's arms before he realized it. He needed as much support as he could get, and right now Trip was perfect for that.

Part of him wondered how Trip knew what to do; the two of them seemed too put-together to suffer from panic attacks like this. Another part of him realized that more than likely, their 'personalities' were nothing more than facades set in place to hide their real selves from others. A defense mechanism likely developed during childhood. One Mizuki couldn't deny struggling with himself for years. 

A few very long and very tense minutes passed before Mizuki finally felt in control enough to pull away from Trip. He muttered a quick 'thank you' and tried to calm himself down the rest of the way. He was obviously still a little shaken and still not quite there all the way, so when a coffee cup clunked onto the table in front of him it startled him out of the daze. Virus had set it down, it seemed, as he was standing to Mizuki's left wrapped up in his blanket.

"It's chamomille," he said softly. Strangely, the hairs on the back of Mizuki's neck stood up. "It helps you relax. You aren't allergic to it are you?" 

"No, I don't...I don't think so," Mizuki answered slowly. He reached out to grip the mug with both hands and found it was just too hot to hold. "Did you...?"

"You blanked for about ten minutes," Noiz explained. "Trip was holding you the whole time and you just...shut down. I'm glad Trip knew what he was doing." 

"Mizuki, do you want any sugar or honey?" Virus asked. He'd moved over to the cabinets again, likely to get some for his coffee anyway.

"Ummm...sugar, I guess, I've...never really drank chamomile," Mizuki muttered. "And this stuff is supposed to help you relax?"

"Works every time for him," Trip said and jerked his head back at Virus. "Sometimes it's the only way I can get him to sleep. Insomnia is a HORRIBLE thing, let me tell you. Especially when he's up until four in the morning working on his laptop. Stupid keyboard clacks too much." Virus playfully thumped him on the back of the head then set the sugar down next to Mizuki.

"I've been meaning to get Noiz to give me a holographic keyboard so it doesn't do that, but I keep forgetting to bring it up," he said. "I don't like keeping you up anymore than I like staying up." Trip reached out to grab Virus' hand and pull it to his lips to kiss it softly.

"I know. I'm just teasing you," he said. He saw Mizuki reach for the spoon and hummed softly. "Don't put too much sugar in there. You're supposed to be relaxing, not making it worse by ending up with a sugar high. Not good after a panic attack, even if it's just a small one like that."

"How do you know that? The stuff about panic attacks," Mizuki asked. "Do you...?"

"Not me. Well...not usually me, anyway," Trip answered. "Virus has them more than I do. He went through a lot of shit as a kid." Mizuki decides to only put in two spoonfuls of sugar and frowns. Trip noticed and leaned back to reach into the drawer and bring out a spoon to give him. "Sorry about that. Guess it slipped Virus' mind."

"Actually I have two spoons and forgot to give him one," Virus laughed, a hand coming up to cover his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Mizuki, I don't know why it slipped my mind."

"It's fine," Mizuki laughed weakly. Something was weighing on his mind now. He wasn't sure how to go about asking it, either. But eventually his curiosity won out, and he spoke. "...What was it like for you two? In the ummm...in the institute." Virus and Trip both fell quiet, looking down at the floor and biting their lips. This was a painfully sore subject for them both.

"...Well that depends which one of us you're asking," Trip finally answered. He was barely above a whisper. "Things were different for us both. Virus was part of the first generation of kids they used. I was the third or fourth generation. They'd started doing things a lot differently when it was my turn."

"Oh. I didn't think about that," Mizuki muttered. "...Is this a sore subject? If it is I'll back off, I don't...I don't want to bring up bad memories or cause flashbacks or anything like that."

"No, it's fine. We're simply...confused. Because no one ever asks about our past. So we aren't sure how to go about answering you," Virus hummed. "But if...you really want to know, I suppose a good place to start would be the beginning. Right?"

"I guess." Now Mizuki was regretting asking about this. He'd managed to get a vague idea of their past from eavesdropping on them, but never anything specific or concrete. He'd wanted answers before, but now he wasn't quite so sure. "Like I said, if you...if you don't want to talk about it you don't have to." 

"No...no, I think we should. They say talking about what happened can make the burden a little lighter. So I suppose we should be thankful for this." He looked up at Mizuki over his glasses. "Do you mind if I make something to eat first, though? I'm a little hungry."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Do you want me to help?" Mizuki offered. Virus waved his hand in dismissal and stood up again.

"No, I'm fine. You should probably drink some of that tea, though. Seriously, it'll help calm your nerves," he suggested. Mizuki hummed softly to himself and picked the mug up. He took a few sips from it and hummed softly.

Thirty minutes later, Virus had settled back into his chair with a couple of boiled eggs on a plate in front of him. He could see the questioning look Mizuki was giving him and he chuckled a little bit.

"Don't question this, please. I really like boiled eggs." He tapped the bottom of the egg on the table, pulled the shell off the bottom, then slid a spoon underneath the shell. He twirled it around slowly, then used a bit of leverage to separate the shell and the skin from the egg. He then grabbed the salt and poured a bit on top. "Now. I believe you asked me about our past earlier." Mizuki started a little bit before nodding and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah. I did. I uhhh...are you absolutely sure about this? About talking to me about this?" Virus chuckled and took a bite from his egg.

"I'm quite positive," he said after swallowing. "So where would you like me to start? I can tell you about what little childhood I had or I can start from the institute, or...?" 

"...I guess you could start from the beginning. I always wondered how you and Trip ended up there." Mizuki watched Virus stare at his mug for a long, long while before sighing.

"My father was an abusive fuckwad who couldn't tell the tip of his nose from the tip of his dick. Worked my mother half to death because he didn't want to do anything. He always bitched and complained because I took so much fucking money to keep alive, kept telling me that I was worthless and a fucking mistake." His lip twitched up and his eyes narrowed. "I learned young and I learned fast that my mother was too good for him." He chomped the rest of the egg he had left and began fuming. "She did everything she could to make him happy, like a 'good wife' was supposed to. She loved him so much...and she deserved so much better..."

"So...how did ummm...how did you...?" Virus blinked a few times and cleared his throat.

"Right. Well, about the time I turned nine or ten, my father decided he was tired of paying for me to live under his roof, and decided he was going to find some way to make all of the money he'd spent on me back. Well he'd had me in public school at the time and word got around fairly quickly that I was a certified fucking genius. So Toue came and decided that he wanted me. Paid my dad off and took me away. When I got there they started doing tests on me. Determine my physical and mental peak. Not very strong, probably the smartest kid they'd have. So they stuck me in a dorm with other geniuses and kept testing us. See how fast we could solve puzzles or see how fast we could solve complicated algorithms. A few of the younger ones decided they couldn't take it after a while and well...I'll leave what they did to your imagination." A somber silence settled in the kitchen now. Mizuki focused his attention almost entirely on his mug of tea, while Noiz began fidgeting awkwardly in his chair.

"That's...that's horrible," Mizuki whispered. "What the fuck...? How could Toue do something like that?" Virus and Trip shrugged in unison at this.

"Toue didn't care. He was more concerned with being able to take control of everything like he wanted to. Remember, he treated his own children like they were little more than tools to be used as pawns. Why would he care about some children that aren't his own?" Virus pointed out.

"What exactly did they do to you? Was it just tests, or...?"

"They did surgeries on us too. Medical experiments. Sometimes under anesthetics, sometimes completely awake and fully aware of what's going on, just for shits and giggles and to see how far they could push us before we blacked out from the pain. When they realized I could easily surpass all of the other children in intelligence they began focusing almost all of their attention on me. I was so tired most of the time. I was their favorite guinea pig for most of my time there." He sighed softly and flicked his eyes up at Trip. "I say most, because once they found Trip their attention shifted. He was interesting to them." Mizuki frowned a bit and straightened up a bit.

"Why? What was so special about him?" he asked. Trip growled in the back of his throat and looked up at Virus with death in his eyes. "Is that...a sore subject with him, or something?" Trip nodded slowly and took a slow breath. "Oh."

"I won't go into specifics. But after Trip came there, and after he started following me around, I got attached to him. He hid just how smart he was and showed off his strength, instead. Didn't take long before he started showing up with bruises on him to my room late at night." Virus finished off another egg and half his coffee before he continued. "Turns out the assholes that were experimenting on us and working on us decided he was cute."

"You're fucking kidding me."

"Oh, I wish I was. This was only a year or two before I was 'graduated' out to work for Toue, so I couldn't do much, but I did what I could to distract them." He sighs softly, and his eyes gloss over. "Those times were rough. I bled a lot."

"Fuck I'm sorry," Mizuki said. Virus shrugged again and shelled another egg.

"I got used to it while I was there, actually. Numbed myself to it. It never affected me again. It was merely a means to an end; a way to keep Trip safe for as long as I could as best I could. It worked while I was there, too. They'd go to find Trip, and they'd make sure to have me around in the room as well to keep them entertained while they watched him. As long as I didn't say no, they didn't touch him anymore. After I was 'graduated' out, though, they honed back in on him. Then he broke one of their jaws and smashed another one's skull in. He hit hard for a twelve, almost thirteen year old kid. They sure as hell backed off of him then. They tried to sedate him once. Take advantage of him being knocked out. Turns out they gave him a dose for someone a third of his weight. He woke up ten minutes in and beat them all until they were barely recognizable." Virus' eyes snap back to focus and he clears his throat. "Sorry about that."

"No, no, you're...you're fine," Mizuki muttered. "But fuck, that sounds horrible...did Toue know about that?" Trip scoffed and shook his head.

"If he did he didn't care," he said. "As far as he was concerned, Virus and I were the perfect specimens. Brain and brawn, working in perfect harmony. Completely symbiotic and disgustingly dependent on the other." He hesitated for a moment before reaching over and taking an egg from in front of Virus, who merely hummed and took a moment to count how many he had left. "The only stipulation was that we couldn't die, or be seriously maimed."

"He says after they fuck my eyes up," Virus deadpanned. "I'm still pissed about that. So much money wasted on a fucking optometrist because they screwed the calibrations up in the mirrors."

"What, your eyes? I know you said they were fake, but I thought you meant like the corneas were transplants or something. Your eye is legitimately fake?" Mizuki asked. 

"Yep. Both of ours are," Trip said. "Virus was one of the first ones to get the surgery done. They hadn't quite figured everything out yet. He'd worn glasses before he'd had it, and they wrote down how to position the mirrors and such in our eyes to correct the issue, but the idiots didn't pay attention and must have glossed over the note. So when they pulled the bandages off he found out he was just as blind as he'd been before, with no way to fix it other than to wear glasses." 

"Was there no way to go in and correct things?" Noiz asked. He'd been mostly silent this entire time, content to simply listen and observe. But now he was genuinely curious.

"No, there isn't," Virus sighed. "The optics are hardwired to our brains in place of the normal nerve endings and receptors. They'd have to detach them either from my brain and risk killing me, or disconnect them from my eyes and hope they can reattach them somehow without causing too much damage to anything and still running the very real risk of killing me somehow. Of course this was before the tower fell; Trip and I haven't been able to find anyone who actually worked on us and could take care of these things should they fail, which I'm almost certain they will one day. Much as I would like to think otherwise."

"So one day you'll be blind?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Trip said. "One day something's gonna fuck up, because even if these things were meant to last there's only so much you can account for, and then we'll be blind. Of course if most everything else is still functional, we can just use Welter and Hersha as seeing eye AllMates, and just see everything through them, but that would take some serious hardware upgrades and I don't think they'd appreciate that being done to them. Mostly because they'd never be able to leave our sides, but hey. Whatever. Maybe we'll make it long enough that our eyes won't fail on us."

"It's something worth hoping for," Virus hummed. He finished off his eggs, then his coffee, then yawned, of all things. The rain was putting him to sleep, and talking for as long as he had was helping as well. "I don't know how much longer I can stay awake..."

"You should probably nap then," Trip suggested. "Just a quick one. Half an hour or so. Nothing too long, right?" He watched Virus contemplate this for a long while before standing up and stretching. A few of his joints popped loudly as he did.

"I think I'll do that," he said before walking off down the hallway. Mizuki stared for a long, long while at Virus' seat before he turned to look at Trip.

"...Do you want to talk about what happened?" he asked. Trip felt the corner of his lip tug up a little bit.

"Nah. You've heard enough depressing shit in one day. I'll leave that for another time," he said and stood up. "In the meantime, I'm going to go join Virus. Feel free to join us if you'd like." He sniffled, rubbed at his nose, and walked off to follow Virus. Noiz cleared his throat and took his plate over to the sink to clean it off before turning to Mizuki.

"I'm joining them in bed because it's warm. Maybe you should too," he said and calmly walked off. This left Mizuki alone with his thoughts, completely unsure of what to do, until the question popped up into his head he'd been secretly wondering for almost this entire time. 

"How serious am I about this?" he whispered to himself. He'd apologized to Virus, and by proxy Trip, and felt genuinely serious about it. He'd listened to Virus explain his time in the institute, although Mizuki was certain he'd glossed over most of the details. And he'd seemed completely fine with the prospect of spending some time with the two of them outside of a hostile situation. Neither one of them had pushed him into agreeing, either; Trip had merely offered it, and Noiz had advised he do it. There wasn't any inherent pressure to go to their room and lay in their beds with them under the blanket and listen to the rain while they chat about everything and nothing to pass the time while they fall asleep one by one.

He barely even noticed when he found himself standing in front of their door, hand poised to knock and a sudden peace washing over him. They'd be able to work from here, however slow it would be. So long as Mizuki didn't start to walk backwards.

He knocked twice and took a deep breath to prepare himself for what was about to come. The door opened, and Trip greeted him with a raised eyebrow.

"Your bed is big enough to fit four people, right?"


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit two updates in such a short time I'm on FIRE!  
> But seriously, IDK what happened or what's happening. This chapter seems a little lackluster to me, but maybe that's because I know what's going on and what's supposed to happen and yadda yadda yadda. Sorry if this sucks, I've been having problems writing lately.

Koujaku struggled with a lot of things. He struggled with understanding that he wasn't the only person that Aoba loved; that he wasn't the only person Aoba spent time with, more than anything. That his life had changed so much over the years that it was enough to make his head spin and make him wonder if any of this were real. He didn't think it would have been a few years ago. He'd probably actually laugh at anyone that even joked he'd be in a relationship with so many people at once. 

He was also currently struggling against the weight underneath him trying to throw him off and yelling curses at him as best it could. He'd tuned the voice out long, long ago in lieu of contemplating the best way to knock Aoba out without seriously hurting him.

"Hello!? Asshole, are you even listening? Get off of me, you're heavy and it hurts!" Aoba yelled. The two of them had been like this for twenty minutes now. Aoba...or the imposter, as Koujaku called him, had tried to slip out the front door to do God knew what but was instead pinned down by Koujaku in front of the door and was now screaming his head off. Everyone else was either asleep or pointedly ignoring them, they couldn't tell which. 

"Tell me why you were going outside and I might consider it," Koujaku deadpanned. The imposter grunted and tried to push him off again, but Koujaku shifted his weight a bit to put more pressure on his shoulders and force them to buckle. The imposter's head hit the floor with a resounding 'thunk.' Aoba would feel that later, unfortunately. But that gave Koujaku more excuses to cuddle him.

"I'm not going to because it's supposed to be A SURPRISE! What part of that don't you fucking get!?" Whoever this was (Koujaku refused to call him Aoba, despite his insistence to do just that) had caused enough hell for everyone over the years. Koujaku wasn't about to let him cause even more. Whatever this 'surprise' was supposed to be almost assuredly was a bad thing that would probably result in Aoba getting seriously hurt. And like hell Koujaku was going to let that happen. "I'm not gonna ruin it because your stupid ass won't listen to me!"

"Then you're going to stay here under me until you tell me," Koujaku said curtly. He pulled his coil out and began fiddling with it out of boredom. He'd downloaded some new computer game that Noiz had convinced him would be able to keep even him entertained, and he figured now was as good a time as any to try it out. "So either spill it, or give Aoba back so I can stop this."

"I've told you countless times, I can't just 'give him back!' He's the one that put me in control in the first place! Believe me, I'd much rather be out of the way so that this shit wouldn't happen, but he keeps pushing me back! I'm just as pissed as you are!" This time he reached up to pinch some of Koujaku's skin to get him off. He barely touched fabric before his hand was slapped away hard enough to leave a red mark.

"Don't touch me," Koujaku snapped. "I don't want you ripping this or something to try and get me off. I've told you, I'm not going anywhere, and I mean that." The fake snorted at him and laid his head back down. He could hear the guy wheezing, and for a moment he legitimately felt bad for him, because he knew this couldn't be comfortable. Then the guilt shifted to hurting Aoba. But he'd said he wasn't moving, and he wasn't one to go back on his promises. So he settled down for the long haul and played his game.

He didn't know the long haul would only be about fifteen more minutes, because that's about when Clear walked out. Probably to try and find where they'd went, or maybe he was looking for something to eat. But when he saw Koujaku planted firmly on the imposter's back, he'd flailed his arms and ran over to them.

"Koujaku-san, you're hurting him! Get off of him!" he squawked, easily pulling Koujaku up off of his ass and setting him onto his feet. Clear's attention then turned to soothing his now ex-captive. "Are you okay? How do you feel?"

"Fine, other than my ribs hurting," the fake wheezed out. He used his arms to force himself into a sitting position and reached up under his shirt to rub the spot Koujaku had been occupying moments before. "He'd fucking heavy, and has a bony ass." Clear pouted and turned to glare at Koujaku.

"How could you do that to him! He's a person too, and he's in Aoba-san's body!" he whined. "He hasn't hurt anyone, and yet you're being so mean to him. It's like Virus-san and Trip-san."

"Hey, those two assholes deserve it, and so does he." Koujaku jabbed a finger at the imposter angrily. "He's caused so much shit for all of us over the years. And there's no telling what he'll do with Aoba's body now that he's in control." Clear's pout turned into a grimace.

"How can you say such things about him? He seems so sweet, when he isn't being antagonized or accused of something. Perhaps if you'd give him a chance you'd find out he isn't like you thought he was?" he suggested, head tilting a little bit in that adorable way Clear had mastered over time. Usually Koujaku's resolve would fade, and he'd cave, and he'd do whatever it was Clear was suggesting. But this time he stood fast, and simply crossed his arms over his chest in silent disagreement.

"I'm not giving him a chance, because if I do he'll get Aoba hurt or killed," he argued. "I've heard stories about the shit that thing has gotten into when he's been in control. I'm not risking something like that happening again, got it?" Now it was 'Aoba's' turn to scowl. 

"I'm not gonna get him killed. In case you haven't realized, we share a body, so his death means my death. And even if tht WASN'T the case, I'm trying to HELP him, dumbass." He wheezed a few times before forcing himself up to his feet. He didn't miss Koujaku bowing up out of the corner of his eye. "That's ALL I've wanted to do was help Aoba. The things I did back then...they were stupid. Yeah. I'm well aware of that. But at least he didn't remember any of it. At least he doesn't remember any of it. And I never once let things get bad enough that he almost died." Koujaku scoffed at him.

"Really? Then why was Aoba in the hospital when you were supposed to be in control? If you were so busy protecting him, shouldn't you have made that the LAST place you wanted to be?" He could see 'Aoba's' face twist in anguish, then relax into...pain. Very real, very palpable pain. Regret even.

"Yeah. I know. I used our powers too much and it made us too weak," 'Aoba' mumbled in defeat. He couldn't look at Koujaku now. "I tried so goddamn hard to keep him safe and I fuck it up for both of us. Almost for all of us." Koujaku knew what he meant; he knew that Ren was a part of Aoba too like this thing in front of him was. He's always wondered what would happen if Aoba died; would Ren's consciousness fade away immediately? Or would he be left to suffer in misery that such an integral part of him was missing from his life now?

His train of thought was derailed by very soft sobs. It took him an embarrassingly long time to register they were coming from 'Aoba'. 'Aoba's' hands slowly raised up to bury against his eyes to try and stifle the flow of tears even as his voice betrayed him. Koujaku...felt even worse than he did before. He'd made what he couldn't deny was an extension of Aoba cry over something he'd done. It wasn't fair, seeing as how Koujaku had made his fair share of fuckups over the years. And no one continued to bring it up in front of him unless they knew it was okay to joke about it.

"...I..."

"I didn't mean for that to happen, I didn't mean for us to get so out of control!" Koujaku and Clear both jumped back in surprise at just how strong 'Aoba's voice was right now. "I just...I ran on instinct. I didn't know how to be a 'normal person' like him. He'd been so broken up over his parents leaving, and then you left and he just...shut down. Like he's doing now. And I took advantage of it and abused us and nearly wrecked our lives. I've honestly never been proud of how reckless I was back then. And then Aoba started taking that stupid medication and I couldn't...I couldn't take control. I couldn't even fucking talk to him anymore. I couldn't apologize to him and try to make things right, I couldn't check on him and see how he was handling things, I couldn't do anything but sit in a dark corner for years and hope to whatever deity was listening that everything was still okay." He hiccuped, which Koujaku couldn't deny was adorable, and wiped at his eyes. "I did things without thinking because I could and I nearly destroyed everything. I learned from that and swore to myself that I would never let things get that bad again, but...but when Aoba backed off again I fell back into my old habits and I took what I wanted. I took what I felt was mine and refused to let go."

"Hey...Aoba-san?" Clear asked, leaning in close to 'Aoba's' face. "Are you okay?" 'Aoba didn't react; he continued to stand there, not registering that Clear was speaking to him, not even registering there was anyone in the room with him. He couldn't hear anything, and it was getting harder to even see anything. He thought Aoba might be trying to take back control again, but there wasn't that familiar tugging sensation from his hindbrain telling him that. So that couldn't be it. He realized shortly after that he was starting to lose himself in memories and sensations that he hadn't thought about or felt in years. Watching his opponents in Rhyme falling apart, watching Mizuki struggle with himself to try and stay in control and nearly driving himself mad, hearing a soft voice whispering in his ear that everything would be okay and that he didn't need to worry anymore-

A gentle hand on his face brought him back to the present. 'Aoba' blinked slowly and everything came back into focus. He saw dark blue hair and dark, worried eyes and immediately felt a weight fall from his shoulders.

"Oh...did I zone out again...?" 'Aoba' asked quietly. He brought his head back up to find Koujaku giving him a worried look (he figured it was just Koujaku wondering if the other Aoba had come back yet) and Clear with a genuinely concerned look on his face. Ren was in front of him with almost the exact same look.

"Aoba-san...maybe you should go lay back down," Clear suggested. Koujaku scoffed from the other side and crossed his arms.

"What, and leave him alone so he can keep Aoba down even longer? No thanks. He's not leaving my side until he's gone," he argued. 'Aoba' hung his head down and let out a slow, shaky sigh.

"I'd hoped maybe people would want me around now. Guess they don't," he whispered and started to trudge off. A firm hand holding his kept him still though. He turned to look at Ren and felt his heart break. There were tears welling in his eyes. "Hey...please, don't cry, you...you know it upsets me when you cry. Come on, cheer up. Please?" The hand holding his squeezed tight, and then pulled him in for an equally strong hug. 'Aoba' grunted when his forehead connected with Ren's chin.

"Sorry," Ren whispered, his voice so soft that 'Aoba' almost thought he didn't speak. When he realized that Ren had spoken he smiled a little bit and leaned his head against Ren's chin.

"Don't apologize. Didn't hurt. I've felt worse," he said. Ren squeezed him tighter, which made 'Aoba' wheeze and try to pull away. "H-hey, you're...you're stronger than you were before, that...that kind of hurts..."

"Sorry," Ren laughed weakly and pulled away. A faint shade of red began raising on his cheeks. 'Aoba' laughed and nudged him in the shoulder gently, making him smile a little bit. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Koujaku frowning. "What are you looking at, hippo?"

"Ren, are you sick? Your voice is different, it sounds a lot higher," Koujaku muttered. He moved closer to Ren and set his hand on Ren's forehead to check his temperature. "No...you don't feel like you're warm...did you just ruin your voice?"

"No, he didn't, so stop pestering him," 'Aoba' huffed. 

"Be nice, Aoba," Ren chuckled. Koujaku raised an eyebrow at how differently his voice sounded and watched his face turn even redder. He then grabbed 'Aoba's' hand and began trying to tug him off. "Let's go."

"Ren...you aren't acting like yourself. What's wrong?" he asked. There was panic in Ren's eyes now. He wasn't ready to let people know about him. He didn't want people to know about him honestly. "Ren...answer me."

"Leave him alone, Koujaku," 'Aoba' growled, pulling on Ren's hand and trying to take him back to the bedroom. Koujaku grabbed Ren's other hand as he walked by. "Let him go Koujaku. Now."

"You're hiding something, and I want to know what it is," Koujaku said. "I don't like secrets. Secrets cause problems." Ren was even more visibly panicked now, eyes wide and...now Koujaku see that they weren't Ren's eyes. They weren't the usual golden amber, but a deep, deep black. "Ren...your eyes..."

"Let him go, Koujaku. Now." 'Aoba' grabbed Koujaku's hand and began trying to pry it off of Ren's wrist. It wasn't working, unfortunately Koujaku's too strong for that, but dammit if he wasn't trying. He wasn't going to let this happen right now. This wasn't how thigns were supposed to be.

In hindsight, he should have realized that Koujaku wouldn't take no for an answer. He never had before; why 'Aoba' thought things would be different this time he wasn't sure. What he also realized later was that he probably shouldn't have punched Koujaku like he did. Because that triggered a sort of reflex in Koujaku, which made him turn and swing back just as hard and successfully knock 'Aoba' out. 

When he came to he had a pounding headache, both in his temple and the actual back of his head, and what felt like an ice pack on his head. He was sprawled out on the couch, and he could just hear Mink and Koujaku screaming at each other. He could tell they were actually screaming because Mink's voice never got that loud, or that raw. It made him shrink back in fear until he realized the yelling wasn't directed at him.

"It doesn't matter, you shouldn't have punched him! You could have seriously fucking hurt him if you weren't careful!"

"What the hell was I supposed to do, he hit me first!"

"You were hurting Sei-"

Oh shit they know. No no no no no. What the fuck? How did they figure it out, who told them?

"-and he was trying to keep that from happening."

"If they'd just fucking told me-"

"They shouldn't have had to! You were being an arrogant, pushy bastard, and they had every right to keep things to themselves and not tell you the truth. If you HADN'T been so rough they may have been more willing to open up to you. Forgive me for being so blunt with you, but Aoba could be hurt because of you now." 

'Aoba' groaned and sat up off the couch, wincing as the pain in his head flared even more. It felt like someone had hit him with a sledgehammer. Koujaku hit like a truck when he wanted to. A hand nervously settled onto his leg.

"Are you...okay...?" the voice asked quietly. It was so scared that 'Aoba' felt his heart break a little bit. 

"I'm fine, Sei," he said, turning to look at him. "...How did they find out? Did you...?"

"I did," Sei answered, head tilting ever so slightly to the right. He wasn't curious, but 'Aoba' had realized long ago that it was a habit of his. An adorable habit, at that. "I figured that it was...time to come clean. And let them know I was here. They...they all reacted differently. Virus and Trip were happy. Said they'd missed me, and hoped that maybe I hadn't completely died. Mizuki...Mizuki didn't want to look at me. I think he remembers somehow. Everything...everything I did to him. I don't know if we'll ever be able to talk. Koujaku kept apologizing to me for being so rough, and I just...told him over and over again that it was fine. Noiz was interested, but didn't really say anything to me. Clear was really excited and wouldn't stop talking for twenty minutes." He laughed at this, finding it so adorable. "And Mink...well, Mink knew for a long while. He said he could tell the difference between us by the way we acted, and he wasn't wrong. So I told him when he asked. He said he'd keep it a secret if I wanted to."

"And he obviously did, if no one else realized Ren wasn't alone." 'Aoba' reached over, gently linked his fingers with Sei's, noted just how thick they were because this wasn't Sei's body anymore, it was Ren's. Ren had taken it, bulked it up, lived in it so much more than Sei ever had, ever could have. "You're not an intruder, Sei."

They'd had this conversation before, out on the porch with Sei bawling his eyes out into 'Aoba's' chest and saying how he hated this. How Ren must have hated him, even if he never said he did. Sei always said he felt like he shouldn't have been in this body, that his consciousness should have disappeared with the rest of him but it didn't. Some part of him clung to a back corner of Ren's mind and waited until it had regained enough strength to begin calling to the other parts of Sei that he'd left floating around the different networks. And now he was back and was taking over Ren's body when he'd so willingly given it up before and-

"I still feel like it," Sei choked out. "I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to exist anymore, I'm not..." 'Aoba's' hands settled on his cheeks to force Sei to look up and into his eyes. "Ren doesn't hate me, and I know you don't, but the others..."

"They won't hate you," 'Aoba' whispered, kissing Sei's forehead. "Not like they hate me. You're soft, you're someone that Ren owes his life to. You did no harm."

"But I forced them to hurt you and Aoba, I forced them to do the things they did, it's...it's my fault..." Tears began welling up in Sei's eyes. "I turned them into my pawns..."

"You had no choice, Sei," 'Aoba' whispered. "Toue forced you to do those things. You didn't want to, remember?" He pushed part of Sei's hair out of his face. It was shorter than Sei had it, which was probably weird for him. "You told me that you wanted to cry when you did it. Because those were our friends. Well...they were...they were his friends, anyway. They don't give two shits about me, because I'm dangerous."

"You aren't dangerous though." Sei's eyes narrowed in aggravation. "They don't understand. You aren't like that, you aren't dangerous." 'Aoba' scoffed and dropped his head.

"I'm glad you think that. Because they sure as hell don't," he said. "I'm used to it though. It's why it doesn't bother me anymore. At least I can hang around Virus and Trip though. They don't hate me. I'm sure they didn't miss me as much as they missed you though." Sei smiled softly, reaching up and tapping 'Aoba's' shoulder.

"I know they missed you just as much as they missed me," he said softly. "They liked you just as much as they liked me. Have you tried talking to them?" 'Aoba' shook his head slowly.

"God no. I've been too scared to," he admitted. "I know they'd be able to keep my secret, and keep the others from finding out, but...I was still so scared. What if someone else found out? I couldn't risk that, I couldn't...I couldn't have that happen." Sei's hands came up to take his in them and squeeze. 

"I understand. But...everyone knows you're here. Everyone knows you're back in control. Maybe now you should talk to them." He pulled a hand away to set 'Aoba's' palm on his cheek and closed his eyes with a quiet hum. "You shouldn't let fear control you like this. We've both suffered too much for that, don't you think?"

"That's easier said than done." 'Aoba' let his thumb stroke softly across Sei's cheek. "Nobody hates you. Everyone will probably love you the longer you stick around. Me...everybody wants me gone. I don't think anyone will ever like me." Sei hummed again, keeping his eyes closed, and let a small smile creep up on his lips.

"I don't think that's the case. It'll take some time, obviously, but...I think things will change. You're a good person, I know you are. They just need to find out themselves." 'Aoba' shook his head slowly.

"I'm not a good person, Sei. Far from it. I do things because I can, and that usually gets people hurt. That's a bad thing." Sei finally opened his eyes and straightened his head up. 

"But you've changed, right?" 'Aoba's' head shook.

"I punched Koujaku. That's not something I should be doing, you know?" Sei smiled and kissed the center of Aoba's palm.

"You were doing it to protect me. I don't think you're a bad person because you were trying to protect me." He stood up finally and began gently trying to coax Aoba up to his feet. "Come on. Let's go talk to everyone." 'Aoba' pulled to try and get Sei to sit back down. He didn't want to talk to the others. He wasn't ready to deal with them. Instead of giving in, though, Sei continued to pull. "Come on. You can't hide away from them forever. You have to face them."

"I'm not ready for them to remind me how shitty I am." He managed to free his hand from Sei's and curled in on himself. "I'll be fine. It's...it's no big deal. I'll be fine. I promise." Seis' soft smile turned into a tight scowl.

"Desire...I know you don't want that to happen. But I'm telling you, you can't just...avoid everyone. You're a person, and you need to remind yourself of that." Desire, as Sei called him, as Sei knew he would answer to, looked so uncomfortable with that notion. This was different. He was fine with coming out of his already massive comfort zone; it was the fact that he was being forced to speak with people that he had actively fucked over, hurt, and otherwise ruined their lives.

"I'm not a person," he mumbled. "I'm just...an existence. Someone that shouldn't even be here, shouldn't be able to speak, to hear, to act, to touch...but I do. And I hate it." Sei sighed, let his head hang. Desire was being difficult, as usual.

But he couldn't get mad. He understood Desire's feelings. He understood Desire's fears, and his worries, and just how fucking terrified he actually was. He wanted to try and ease some of those fears and worries. He didn't want to see suc an important part of his brother like this. So he set his jaw and straightened up and mustered as much of a serious look as he could.

"If any of them say something mean, I'll get angry with them. And they don't want to see me angry," he huffed. Desire stared at him for a few long moments before laughing at him and shaking his head. He then stood up and set both hands on Sei's shoulder.

"You're adorable when you try to be serious," he sighs. "But you're failing miserably at it. Thank you for the sentiment though. But if...if you don't mind, will you...will you stay with me while I'm talking to them?" Sei nodded, and Desire's shoulders visibly relaxed. As long as he has support, he knows he'll be fine. So he took Sei's hand tightly in his, and took a slow breath, then turned and began pulling him towards the kitchen.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that everyone was staring at the two of them. He couldn't read their faces, so he didn't know what they were thinking, but a deep-seated dread settled into his gut. He couldn't tell what any of them were thinking or what they were going to do and it terrified him. He couldn't even Scrap his way out of the confrontation because if he did that he would undo so much work his other side had done and he knew he wouldn't be able to live with that. He couldn't hope to live with that.

Everyone had been through enough as it was. Desire knew this. He remembered watching Aoba Scrap all of his friends in such a quick succession that even he felt it and worried they were going to drop dead from the strain. He had thrived on destruction for long enough, and he was honestly growing tired of it. He wanted peace for the first time in his life. True and honest peace.

Mink was the first to step forward, and Desire tensed again. He remembered Mink all too well. He still looked the same, but different. He looked more relaxed and understanding now and like he wasn't carrying so much weight on his shoulders. Mink raised an eyebrow at Desire's reaction, but waited until he'd relaxed before speaking.

"Are you scared of us?" he asked. When Deisre didn't answer immediately Mink knew he had his answer. "You've caused problems before, so you understand why we distrust you. Yes?" Desire nodded this time. He felt bile rising up in his stomach and thought he might puke. He could feel everyone's eyes on him ripping him to pieces. "My next question is...are you willing to change your ways and work to create peace between us all?"

"Yeah," Deisre whispered. His voice was so weak he wasn't sure he'd been the one to speak at first. He couldn't believe he sounded like that. But the answer seemed to be enough for Mink, who nodded solemnly and turned to face the others.

"We have guests now, and they will be treated as such," he said slowly. "I expect everyone to understand that there will be _no violence_ , and if there is I will deal with the person myself. And we all know that won't end well for anyone involved. So please, keep outbursts to yourselves and remember that we are still a family, even if some people don't quite understand that concept yet." Koujaku's head turned to the side in shame as Mink spoke. "Now. It's almost time for dinner. Why don't we all get together and help cook together, hmm?" Sei smiled softly and nodded at him.

"I would like that a lot."


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> GUESS WHAT BITCHES  
> I AIN'T DEAD YET  
> JUST NO WIFI AND NO MOTIVATION  
> So here's chapter 14, AKA Will I Ever Get a Consistent Fucking Writing Style? LOL

Dinner went...surprisingly well. No one fought, no one argued, no one seemed to jump at another person's throat. Even Koujaku remained peaceful, but that was probably in part due to Mink glaring at him the entire time to prevent him from doing something stupid he might regret. Once dinner was finished, Mink decided they should all eat outside in the front porch. It was a nice evening, and was warmer than usual despite the rain that had fallen earlier.

Once everyone had eaten they all gathered into the living room at Mink's suggestion. Desire and Sei cuddled together on the couch, chatting quietly between each other and giggling cutely from time to time. Virus and Trip were snuggled up to Sei's other side and occasionally adding input to the siblings' conversation. Koujaku was by himself, Mizuki to his left on the other side of the couch and talking to Noiz and Mink. Clear was settled on the floor in the middle of the room and listening to the conversations going on around him in silence.

Nobody wanted to address the elephant in the room. They were scared to disrupt the peace that had settled over the home. Things had quieted down, even if only for a little bit, and everyone was enjoying it. Especially Mink, who had been dealing with the fighting for so long that he was beginning to wonder if they would ever find a sense of peace in their relationship, or if they would have to simply deal with the hate for as long as they lived. Sure, Koujaku was still avoiding Virus and Trip like the plague, but Mizuki seemed to at least be giving them a chance. 

His eyes drifted over to Sei, watching him cuddle up to the one he now knew as Desire and occasionally fiddling with the edge of his sleeve or reaching up to brush his hair out of his face. It was...strange...he realized. The body was Ren's, there's no doubt about that; the swell of the muscles and the sharpness of the jaw give it away and reminded him who he'd been living with and loving for years; but the voice was so soft, and the eyes a deep beautiful black that he felt he could get lost in for hours without even trying. His movements were slow, calculated, and he knew it was because Sei didn't understand his new strength yet. When he lived before he was weak and barely able to hold his head up for more than a few seconds without straining himself. Now he could move and breathe and speak and finally actually live. 

In a way, Mink understood where Sei was mentally. Mink had never known weakness like Sei did, he'd always had enough strength in his body to withstand just about anything. But he remembered the feeling of weakness, of not being able to do a goddamn thing because somebody else decided they could control him. And a realization slowly dawned on Mink; Sei suffered the same fate. Toue kept him under lock and key for years, possibly even his whole life. He probably never had the opportunity to see the flowers or the grass like Mink did, he never got to breathe real, fresh air, either. All Sei knew was cold operating tables and sterile white walls and recycled air that had been breathed in by thousands of people who didn't even know he existed.

Mink wondered if anyone else realized this, besides Virus and Trip and Desire. He wondered if the others realized the deeper implications of Sei's new existence and new grasp on life. Did they realize this was a whole new chapter for Sei? A second life, even? He doubted this. He had always had a deeper understanding of the world and of the people in it than most people; he considers it both a curse and a blessing.

He immediately noticed when Koujaku started opening and closing his mouth, obviously trying to decide whether or not to ask whatever question he had. His jaw flapped a few times before he finally grumbled to himself and looked straight at Sei.

“Hey, can I...where is Ren?” he finally asked. “Is he still up there with you, or...?” Sei giggled and pulled himself away from Desire to look at Koujaku better.

“Yes, he's still here,” Sei said softly. He reached up and pushed some of his hair back behind his ear. “He's just...receded, I guess you could say. He's letting me take control for a little bit, and letting me talk to all of you.” He giggled and looked down to the floor. “I guess that's a bit strange, considering I've only been talking to three people. I've just been admittedly kind of...scared to talk to any of the rest of you. I didn't...I don't know what to say. Or how to start a conversation. I never really had the chance to learn before.”

“I don't think it's strange,” Noiz hummed from the couch. He quickly turned and sprawled out across Mink's lap. “You don't really know any of us. You're going to be nervous and you're going to have trouble talking to us.” He craned his neck a tad to get a better view of Sei. “Can't really blame you, honestly. Some of us are intimidating.”

“Oh, no, I don't think any of you are intimidating,” Sei laughed. “I know almost everything about all of you anyway. I know you're all very sweet, and I know you're all going to be accepting of me.” He brought a hand up to play with his hair absently for a moment before realizing there's not much to play with and dropping his hand. “Ahaha...I'm still not used to this. I forget I haven't...been active in this body for years.” To his right Desire chuckled and leaned over to butt their heads together softly.

“Eh. It's fine. It's kinda cute, honestly,” he admitted. “You'll get used to it. I promise.” Sei smiled and nodded gently.

“Yes. I suppose I will, won't I?” he said. “Since I...since I'll be staying here now.” He watched Desire's face turn from excited to depressed.

“Are you really? Or are you just saying that because you don't want to upset me?” he asked. He could see the look of hesitation in Sei's eyes and he snorted. “Sei.”

“I'm sorry, Desire, but I just...I feel like I shouldn't be here, okay? I feel like I'm an intruder and I've overstayed my welcome and like I'm taking Ren's life away from him,” Sei whispered. “I shouldn't be here.”

“Yes you should,” Desire said sternly. “You have just as much of a right to live as Ren does.” He gently grabbed Sei's chin and turned his head to look in Desire's eyes. “You've been through enough. You should get a second chance at life. A chance at a life where you aren't...where you aren't someone's toy.”

“He has a point, Sei-san,” Virus said as he reached over to toy with Sei's hair softly. “You have a wonderful opportunity before you. One that will open your eyes to a whole new facet of life, and one that you shouldn't throw away so readily. I'm sure Ren-san has the same opinion.” Sei pouted and began fiddling with his sleeves again. “And I'm sure you would rather avoid upsetting him, yes?” Sei still refused to answer Virus, and it was because he knew Virus was right. “Then don't run away. Trip and I may have stood by and let Toue-san do what he wanted to you, but we've changed. We want you happy, just like we want Aoba-san happy.” Sei hummed in thought before slowly nodding.

“Yes. I suppose you're right,” he said and smiled a bit. “It wouldn't be fair of me to just...run off again. Not so soon after I came back. And besides, I still have to talk to Aoba. And I can't just leave Desire on his own, he'll get in trouble.” Desire stuck his tongue out at Sei before leaning over to ruffle his hair, which made Sei giggle and try to pull away.

“Please, Desire, leave my hair alone,” he said. “I'm not a little kid, you know.”

“Okay? You're still my brother,” Desire pointed out. “Isn't it our job to harrass each other?” Sei hummed softly, his fingers moving down to pick at loose skin around his fingernails in thought. His eyes clouded over and his head tilted ever so slightly to the side.

“...I suppose it is,” he answered after a time. “It's just...a little weird knowing that you're here. That I'm here. That I'm not gone, you know? I keep bringing this up, but it really is strange to me. Like Virus said, this is a whole new part of my life, and I won't be doing this alone. It's a nice thought, considering I've technically been dead for so long...I never expected you all to be so friendly with me.” His lips pulled up into a gentle smile, and Sly felt his heart melt in his chest.

It finally hit Desire that he hadn't seen Sei in years. Not since his old days playing Rhyme under the name Sly Blue. Not since he'd spent countless hours dragging Sei around with him, laughing maniacally and avoiding Virus and Trip like a game of cat and mouse. That was exactly what it was, he now realized now; a game the four of them had unknowingly played for years. He remembered the last time he'd seen Sei, remembered watching him sit against a building trying to catch his breath and laughing, remembered promising to finally let Sei watch him play Rhyme. He'd seen something out of the corner of his eye, had tried to react to stop it but couldn't and already knew who was swinging for him. What he hadn't expected, though, was to wake up and be forced into the back of Aoba's mind, watching everything through a fuzzy lense and screaming in rage. He'd always try to convince Aoba to go out at night, to wander around town in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, they'd run into Sei and find a way to fix this. But soon afterwards Usui had been created and took over Rhyme matches, and Sly had a sneaking suspicion as to who was controlling her.

Desire didn't realize he'd been crying until a soft finger reached up to wipe his tears away. He slowly leaned over, letting his head rest against Sei's chest and listen to his heartbeat. One of Sei's hands came up to slowly run through his hair, the soft sensation sending shivers down his spine. The steady thump of Sei's heart helped remind him that this wasn't just a dream and that he really had his brother back.

“Why are you crying, Desire?” Sei asked quietly, keeping his voice low as he spoke. “You aren't one to cry.”

“You're back,” Desire answered, reaching up to cling to Sei's shirt. His tears were already soaking through the thin material but he couldn't hold them back anymore. “You're here, and I'm...I'm not alone. I can speak and breathe and eat and feel you and hear you and I don't want this to end. We lost so many years...I never even got to drink with you when you turned twenty...” Sei laughed quietly, his chest vibrating and tickling Desire's ears. The hand in his hair stilled.

“But now we can catch up on the years we missed. Though I know exactly what you were up to all that time,” he laughed. He very gently pushed Desire to sit up and smiled at him with that same soft smile he'd always had. “And my story...well my story isn't very interesting.” Desire sputtered a laugh out and shook his head.

“No...I suppose it isn't,” he whispered. He swallowed thickly to avoid breaking down again and took a deep, slow breath. “But it's still your story. And I still want to hear it. And I'm sure the others here would too.” Sei tensed visibly, his eyes flicking down to the couch between them. He pulled his bottom lip in between his teeth to worry it.

“...I suppose I could tell it,” he finally answered. “But I would need a bit of time to collect my thoughts. Try to break down a few walls I put up to block out some particularly nasty memories.” Desire brought his hand forward to lace his fingers with his sibling's, then pushed his forehead softly against Sei's. Sei hummed softly and pushed back.

“Take as long as you need to,” Desire said. “You shouldn't push yourself. How many times did you tell me this all those years ago?” Sei chuckled softly and looked down at their entwined fingers.

“More times than I can count,” he said just as quietly. “I'm glad to see you took my advice to heart.”

“Didn't really have a choice though. You would have beat my ass if I hadn't,” Desire said. Sei snorted in answer and pulled away.

“Oh please, scrawny little me? I would have barely hurt you.”

“I wouldn't have been able to hit back though. Couldn't bring myself to hurt you. Still can't bring myself to hurt you.” Desire softly flicked Sei's nose, chuckling softly at the confused look on his face, and leaned back a bit. “But...I think it's safe to say you could make good on that threat now.”

“More than likely. But I couldn't bring myself to hurt you either,” Sei said. “You're too important to me. My cute little brother~” Desire squawked and brought a hand up to playfully swat his cheek.

“Oi, shut it! We aren't kids anymore!” Sei shrugged softly and smiled at him.

“And? You're still my little brother. Aren't I supposed to tease you like this?” he asked, and his head tilted ever so slightly and Desire lost all of his will to argue. He couldn't say no to that face, no matter how hard he tried to. So instead Desire pouted and looked across the room at nothing in particular. Sei knew he'd won, so he reached up and gently ruffled Desire's hair. Desire just grumbled in response and weakly swatted his hand away. 

It was Mink clearing his throat that finally reminded them they weren't alone. Desire smiled in embarrassment and rubbed the back of his head softly.

“Uhhhh...right. So what's up?” he asked. Sei giggled softly from across the couch, earning a playful glare from Desire.

“We all need to have a discussion soon,” Mink pointed out, one leg coming up to cross over the other. “And I do mean all of us. And I want this to be CIVIL. If things get out of hand I won't hesitate to put you in your place.” Sei and Desire both frowned at that.

“Aoba won't be able to hear this.”

“And neither will Ren.”

“We can fill them in on everything later,” Mink promised. “This needs to be done now.” Sei nodded sternly and straightened up off the back of the couch.

“Right. So...how will we start this?”


End file.
